Picture books... when did you put them away for good? (sniff, sniff)

[Janie Grace]

I have had children's picture books around my house for seventeen years. My youngest is now six and i just realized that he very rarely looks at picture books. I am reading Charlotte's Web aloud to him (which he loves) and he is learning to read... I am wondering if the season of picture books is coming to an end. Suddenly all the books on my front-facing display (Very Hungry Caterpillar, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Oxcart Man, etc) seem like of young.  :( However, things do go in cycles around here and it could be that the newly warm weather is drawing his attention outside... maybe the hot days of summer will revive his interest in paging through colorful books. 

 

So I am wondering... when did you all put away your picture books? Obviously, I am not going to get rid of them all. The favorites (there are many!) will be saved for grandchildren. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

No I think you could hold onto them for him a tad longer. 

 

I hear you.  I miss some of the picture books.  I can't recall exactly when I gave ours away.

 

 

[Hilltopmom]

I've culled ours to favorites a few times. Then we started fostering & adopting and need them again;)

But, I'm not re buying junky ones, even at garage sales. Trying to be more minimalist & just keep really good ones at home.

[Onceuponatime]

I let my youngest decide. I've asked every six months for the last two years. He just recently boxed up and stored most of the picture books after culling out ones that he didn't want to keep. He's 11.

[JFSinIL]

Keep the favorites for the grandkids. Donate any not in bad shape to local charity or other new parents.

[Night Elf]

I put them away when they stopped asking for them and choosing them for themselves. They learned to read very quickly and started reading easy chapter books. They started asking for those for bedtime stories instead of the picture books. I did the same thing when they outgrew the easy chapter books. It just seems once they move on to the next stage of reading, they leave the others behind.

[TrixieB]

My dc are both in high school and I haven't put the picture books away.  They are still on the shelves in our living room and the dc's bedroom.  And yes, the dc do get out a picture book from time to time.  Some just never lose their appeal.  I'm thinking of Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, A Bargain for Frances, and the Yoko & Friends books with the Franks ("Good!" said the Franks.  "Good good good!"). 

 

I wish there were little neighborhood kids to babysit.  My dc could take along a library and read to the kids for hours.

[zoobie]

I put them away when my 2nd was around 6 and was reading chapter books and beyond, but then we had another baby and another! I kept a cubby of favorites for visiting small children, and I had a Container Store multipurpose bin of board books stashed in the hall closet. I have some picture books from my childhood still on bookshelves too, but those aren't down for the goat-children to munch right now.

[Garga]

I was thinking of this the other day.  My youngest just turned 11 and we still have picture books hanging around.  No one reads them, but I don't want to let them go.  :) 

 

It might be time to let all but a few go.  There are a couple I'd like to keep to read to the grandkids one day.

[Guest]

My kids are turning 9 & 11 next month and we have no plans to pack away. We don't really sit and read them like you would with a younger child, but I will occasionally find one of them reading a picture book in the library. Heck, I will sometimes sit down and start reading them. I have always had a heavy focus on collecting books with illustrations that I love. Also, with Adam Andrews' Teaching the Classics, he has you start out the year reading at least one picture book to illustrate lit analysis, we occasionally do more throughout the year. So, they aren't collecting a ton of dust here. I also tend to pick one beautiful fairy tale or poetry book to read a week, too. I don't think I'll ever be able to part with *my* picture books. ;)

[TechWife]

My son is nineteen and we still have a shelf of picture books in our bonus room. Good literature never goes out of style. 

[Bambam]

Do not give them away. I asked my kids when we moved (they were probably 10 and 12) and they said they didn't want them anymore. I was sad, but we wanted to get rid of extra stuff.

 

Fast forward several years, and I hear things about remembering this specific book and missing another specific book. So, yes, I'm slowly re-collecting some of the favorites here. It is sweet to see them exclaim when I bring one home and they sit and fondly read their old friend again. 

 

And it is helpful to have them when friends bring their younger children over.

[HS Mom in NC]

The are plenty of picture books in the recommended reading section of the Activity Books for for SOTW 1-3 and a few in SOTW 4.  Just because it's a picture book doesn't mean it's for little kids.  Diane Stanley's biographies are some of the most advanced picture books out there and we're reading them through the elementary school years.  Each region and era has its folklore and the SOTW Activity Book recommendations often touch on that with a recommended picture book that can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to read aloud depending on its complexity and length. So, no, the picture book years are not behind you if don't want them to be. The become a different kind of interesting.

For the ones you have now, if you really need to get rid of some, get rid of the least loved ones and keep the best.(Says the poster with several thousand books in her house.)

[lovinmyboys]

I think I would keep them awhile longer. My younger 3 are 7, 6, and 4 and they all still like picture books. I am reading James and the Giant Peach to them, but they still all like picture books.

 

I recently took my 6yr old to the dr and he grabbed a whole bag of picture books from home to look at in the waiting room.

[Carrie12345]

Not yet!

 

We still have baby board books out.  My niece came and "devoured" some of them a couple of weeks ago!  :D

[PrairieSong]

Our youngest is 16 and I still have most of our picture books. Good thing, because our dd and son-in-law are expecting a baby boy, our first grandchild, this summer!

[MysteryJen]

I just packed the favorite ones (in a box labeled "for grandchildren") last October, because we moved. Otherwise, they would have remained on a shelf.

 

The others were donated or recycled.

[MistyMountain]

I still read my 5 and 7 year old picture books even though they can listen to higher level chapter books. A lot of picture books actually have good stories with advanced vocabulary and they are not simple. My 9 year old does not read them as much but she still will occasionally. a Very Hungry Catapillar is very young but there are still good ones out there for older kids.

Edited March 16, 2016 by MistyMountain

[wintermom]

I still have a ton of picture books on the shelves, and don't plan on getting rid of them until a major down-sizing happens. I'd like to keep them for future grandkids.

 

My dc still pull out some of their favourites. With a 6 yo in your house, I'd think it's way too soon to get rid of all picture books. Your dc may be moving onto different sort of pictures, like cartoon books, but they'll likely still enjoy reading through their old favourites for fun.

 

[SKL]

My kids are 9yo and we still have lots of age-appropriate picture books.  Most of them are non-fiction.

 

I do give books to my nieces (who are 5/6) as they become too young for my kids.

[happypamama]

The Hungry Hatter-killer (how one of my little guys said it!) will never leave my home. :)

 

I obviously still have picture books that are read frequently, but I anticipate it'll be another six or eight years before I really have to box them up, and it's conceivable that in ten or twelve, I could have grandchildren. My older elementary kids still giggle at some of the favorites, and nobody turns down my readings of Fox in Socks.

[ScoutTN]

My kids are turning 9 & 11 next month and we have no plans to pack away. We don't really sit and read them like you would with a younger child, but I will occasionally find one of them reading a picture book in the library. Heck, I will sometimes sit down and start reading them. I have always had a heavy focus on collecting books with illustrations that I love. Also, with Adam Andrews' Teaching the Classics, he has you start out the year reading at least one picture book to illustrate lit analysis, we occasionally do more throughout the year. So, they aren't collecting a ton of dust here. I also tend to pick one beautiful fairy tale or poetry book to read a week, too. I don't think I'll ever be able to part with *my* picture books. ;)

 

 

This. My kids are the same ages.

Both of my kids do still read picture books, even though they well above grade level. I occasionally have a read-the-book-basket week instead of going to the library. Picture books are a treasure and many actually have fairly advanced text and/or wonderful art. Not putting them away any time soon here.

[greenbeanmama]

My mom never packed away our picture books. She had them with all the other books in the living room until she moved (when I was 23, and my youngest sibling was 13). Now they're in her spare bedroom, with cookbooks (go figure). It is very sweet to have her read my childhood favorites to my children. I can't imagine even putting them in storage - by the timy my youngest outgrows them, it won't be *that* long until the possibility of grandchildren!

[Farrar]

Around age 6 or 7 I started weeding them out. However, my kids had a huge picture book resurgence around age 8, when they discovered they could read the longer ones themselves. They were perfect - longer stories with richer vocabulary but short enough for one sitting. Sort of the opposite of the light but longer chapter books they were reading at the time. We suddenly had piles of them out from the library again for awhile. It was kind of cool.

 

We kept one shelf of them (one level of one of the children's bookshelves, that is) for posterity and visiting kids and maybe for future grandchildren. The special favorites got saved as well as timeless stuff like some of the fairy tales and Caldecott type books.

[GailV]

I've gotten rid of a few dozen ... but we have hundreds, so it's barely made a dent.  My sister was a children's librarian at a major library system, went to ALA and ABA for years, got all sorts of books to look over (often signed by authors) and then gave them to us.

 

Just today my 16yo pulled out The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher, and declared we can never, ever get rid of it.  

[HRAAB]

I didn't put our favorite picture books away although I did move them upstairs and store them on the bottom shelf of my largest bookcase in hopes that some day I would be wanting them.  Ones that weren't favorites, I donated.  Just yesterday I pulled out some of our old favorites and sent my granddaughter home with all our Frances books.  I'm getting all sappy in my old age, but just thinking about my dd snuggling with her little girl while sharing some of her favorite pictures books makes me get teary.  I think I might be losing it!

 

Another thought - we still read our favorite Christmas picture books every year even though my youngest are 16.  My youngest was so excited yesterday when she saw Miss Suzy she had to sit down and read it.

[pehp]

Boy, I don't know.  Mine are still young so I'm years away from that point....but I think keeping them out, or at least accessible, for a long time is a great thing. I ADORE picture books, and I still have many of my own from my childhood, which I love fiercely! Mine live in specific spots, so they do not seem to overrun the house (and I am really picky about which ones I purchase, so we probably have way less than some families).  

 

I think picture books are for all ages, so I'd probably err on the side of keeping them out/available for a long time.  But ymmv!!!! ;) I would involve your kids in the process of culling, though, because they may love a book that you never really connected with...you never know!

[sewingmama]

My youngest is 6 and not quite reading yet and still loves his picture books. He looks at them for hours.

 

My 9&8 yo read picture books all the time as well. My DD especially is very visually orientated. They do read chapter books of course but whatever picture books I've borrowed from the library for my 6 yo they will pick up and read as well.

 

It is probably time to pack away the toddler board books but my youngest won't let me...he still likes the pictures in them especially if they are fire engine or cat related. Everytime I go to pack them up he says "Hey I was just about to ask you to read me that one" lol..so I guess they will stay out a while longer.

[The Girls' Mom]

My 19 year old still brings home picture books from the library, and occasionally purchases them for her collection..lol.  I love the artwork in picture books and I don't think they should ever be put away.  (Although I do have a box of special ones packed up in the attic to make a little room)

[Anne in CA]

I have all my picture books boxed up because I have no good place to display them right now, but I would put them out if I had a lot of room. Susan Jeffers has such beautiful horses in her books that I consider them my favorite art, lol.

[matrips]

My kids are 11 and we still have a couple bins of picture books. Mostly informational ones or ones with a moral lesson. They are more of a short story picture book than the very short board books. They enjoy them still from time to time. Included are also berenstein bear books and magic school bus. And they make a good bedtime story length.

[sbgrace]

My kids are 12, and I still have a bookshelf of picture books. We have culled periodically. They tend to read them a lot during that process--like finding old friends. It's fun.

 

I still find one or another reading a picture book from the bookshelf relatively frequently.

 

Someone upthread mentioned that there is a time when kids can read them on their own. My boys had a time period when that was very motivating. I can't remember the age, but past where you probably are OP. I also used picture book reading to work on speech articulation for one child.

 

I gave away a lot of classic stuff like Frog and Toad when we outgrew them and culled. I'll continue culling periodically, but I'll hold on to the loved picture books as long as they want.

 

 

[Guest]

NEVER!! My mom kept most of ours for years then gave them all to my oldest brother and his family...needless to say I was miffed.

[Tsuga]

My mom kept the nicest ones out until she had grandkids. Not just any picture books, but hardcover, classics, poetry. I plan to keep those out. Even if they only pick those every once in a blue moon, they have such nice morals.

[FaithManor]

I made a bundle of special ones for each child. They are gift wrapped and put away for future grandchildren. The rest I donated, and yup, there were misty eyes when I parted with them, but we are book freaks and owned way to many to continue storing so it was the practical solution.

 

 

[Katy]

Never, just move them out of bedrooms & to bookshelves in office when they're no longer reading them.  They go back sometimes.