Day 48

On Saturday, along with some friends, the girls and I went to our local library branch for a book exchange.  The concept is simple.  There is a time frame in which you drop off books and get a ticket with the number notated, then you return later during  an hour window in which you choose that number of books. The idea is great and there is a wonderful and dedicated group of volunteers that makes it happen.

Having never been to this event before, we chose our books carefully to exchange.  There was a good balance of paperback to hardback, I checked to make sure all the pages were there, no overt markings. I’d say, it was solid second hand book stock of current and relevant titles.

Well apparently, not everyone so thoroughly vets their exchange choices.   This is probably why communism fizzled.

And, of course, we got there somewhere during the middle of the available “pick out your book” window.

ROOKIE MISTAKE

Book Exchange

 We should have been right there at the front of the line, camped out, like it was the midnight show of Breaking Dawn, Part 2.  Then we would have had a chance to make a grab for the Ramona, Magic Tree House and Cat Warrior Books.

However, there were still some acceptable books left for younger kids. So Kelsey, who is six, was able to find suitable books.  (Plus, she doesn’t care if MICAH is inscribed liberally throughout)

The more advanced reader’s selection wasn’t so great. Some of Kayla’s choices were:

• Several random books with stern titles courtesy of the Christian Science Reading Room
• Suspense Stories, copyright 1967
• Frog & Toad Together, Stamped: Courtesy of the Schenectady County Public Library Reading is Fundamental Program (from the mid 70’s)
• A book of organ solos (which she actually wanted)
• A Mary Kate and Ashley Mystery (this seems to have taken place post Full House, pre anorexic A-list)
• About 30 “Babysitter’s Club” Books (which I am pretty sure has gone the way of Encyclopedia Brown Mysteries and fallen out of favor with the young bookworm set

While she was “owed” 12 books, we were only able to scrounge together about four books for her.   She didn’t seem too bothered about the inequity.  But, when we “checked out” the volunteer at the desk was apologetic and very kindly wrote Kayla a voucher for four books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale at the other side of the building.

If Kayla was a fan of Readers Digest Condensed Books or Janet Evanovich, she would have been all set.  But, since she wasn’t, the selection there was also limited for a nine-year-old.

Then suddenly she spied it, on the top shelf with a “Special Price” sticker on it.  She hauled it down and almost gleefully said, “Can I get this, please?”

“What are you going to do with that?” I said.

“I’m going to read it,” she insisted.

“Well Kayla, that book is pretty hard, even for adults.”

“I know it’s in Old English,” she matter-of-factly stated.

Maybe after she reads it, she can explain it to me.

So, It’s possible that my daughter  is the only nine year old in the state of Colorado, maybe the entire western US, that owns all 2,000ish pages of The Complete Illustrated Shakespeare.

A thought: I love the book exchange idea and obviously it worked out great for us.  Another good idea for the future is to organize  a group of friends to do a similar exchange.  This would put in place, peer pressure policing.  No one will bring raggedy ‘ole books if they are among people they might see again. Plus, you could then exchange with a group of people with kids at similar reading levels.