Q. for those that order library books online and then go pick them up

[rose]

We're going to be temporarily living in a big city and it looks as though the library is going to be a bit harder for me to access the way I'm used to. Typically, I take all the kiddos and go and browse. I pick out some non-fiction for each age group and some fiction for each age group. The older two can pick some of their own but they're expected to read what I choose. I do this as a way of broadening their horizons.

 

The trouble is that I just don't think that I'm going to be able to spend so much time browsing over the next few months. I really don't want to give up library books though. It's been such a good way to expose my dc to a plethora of topics that we would never visit just through textbooks. As an alternative I'm thinking of ordering my heap online and then just picking them up once a week.

 

My question is, how do you browse picture books online? I can easily pick books for my older two dc but for the littles I'm scratching my head at how to efficiently pick books. I really don't like most picture books at the library. They fiction is usually too silly or they have a mystical bent. With the non-fiction picture books I have to get the ones that are appropriate for my dc's comprehension and aren't boring "twaddle." When I go through the racks I might only select 1 in 30 to take home. How do you do it?

[rjand6more]

It can take more work than just wandering in the books.  First, I narrow by topic.  Then I copy and paste into Amazon and hope there is a "look inside" option.  I may also check the reviews.  We have a great youth librarian.  I have asked her just to pull books she thinks we may like.

[klmama]

Could you just request picture books for them that you read with your older dc?  If you asked them, they'd probably remember the best ones.  That's how I picked picture books for my youngest.  With the older ones, I went through every. single. book. on the shelf to find ones that were worth reading, but then before youngest was ready for them the library remodeled and got rid of most of the older books.   :glare:  Thankfully, the other libraries in the system still had the good ones, so we were still able to read them by requesting them online.

 

  

Edited July 31, 2017 by klmama

[Julie of KY]

I go from book lists that are created for curriculum or others. I look for books by the same author if I like them. I look at recommended books at the back of books I like. I haven't really done much of placing holds on picture books so I'm not sure. I'm not afraid to put many books on hold and then simply return several if they don't meet what I'm looking for. We will intermittently browse while picking up books, but not always.

[ExcitedMama]

I usually order school related subjects online, so that's usually history, geography and science. Sometimes while looking on those subjects I find picture books too. I also get emails from Amazon on their lists of children's books, like they just had a great one on the funniest pictures books this year, and then I see which ones our library has and order those. The ones they like I usually order whatever else the have by that author so it's pretty hit or miss if they will be good. Then when it's time to pick up they can quickly choose something. Once you learn the layout of the library that could be pretty quick. They both know where their favorite books are so they can choose pretty quickly now. You could also think seasonally and google/Amazon book ideas to request. Memoria Press has a great selection of books in their Enrichment series for K-2 which focuses on one picture book a week that's been a big hit here. It's often classic books that I'd never heard of and probably never would have chosen myself.

[ScoutTN]

I order history and science books online. I choose a few picture books based on author, illustrator, or recommendation.

Then I browse a bit at the library, often choosing from the librarian's highlighted books or just choosing one shrlf or one letter of the alphabet ( for authors' last names), rather than search the whole picturebook section.

[thessa516]

I use booklists to help me pick quality picture books. Read Aloud Revival puts out a monthly booklist of picture books if you need a place to start. I put lots of books on hold, so it's not a big deal to me if I have one or two flops in each order. I simply return them to the library at my earliest convenience.

[barnwife]

Ditto pp.


With a 7 yo, 5 yo, almost 4 yo, and a 7 mo, I can't guarantee that I will be able to browse. So every week I order books online. I use various book lists. I order 2-3 books for our science topic, 2-3 for social studies, 2-3 quality picture books, and one or two random things.

It's working for us.

[nixpix5]

I usually know what I am looking for. Either it is a booklist for curriculum I am using or I browse in Amazon and then search my library to see if they have them. It isn't as easy to use but it is much easier then hauling the kids in and wandering.

Edited July 31, 2017 by nixpix5

[heartlikealion]

I can't imagine looking through 30 books to settle on one. That is going to be tough to do online, too, so I guess searching the Amazon reviews, common sense media, and/or other sites like book depository reviews.

 

We have never brought home a book specifically for dd from the public library yet (she's kind of destructive). She just looks at the ones we have. We have accumulated a good many (some from when ds was young, many second hand passed to us or new ones given as gifts. I'm not particularly worried about it twaddle I guess, though).

 

We have a series of books with each letter of the alphabet. Yes, they are a bit ridiculous. But I like them. This is what they look like: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Complete-Set-MY-FIRST-STEPS-TO-READING-JANE-BELK-MONCURE-25-books-2-extra-/253062047601?hash=item3aebac6771:g:s7QAAOSw0hRZdoXl

You see the white book that says "a" ... well they use a bunch of characters that start with a. Hence, the astronaut. Each book is about a child putting items into a box and things that happen during their day. Little "d" is about a girl that has a bunch of dolls. She makes clothing for her dolls, takes them on a ride, has a tea party. Honestly, I don't expect children to remember every book we read them so it's not super important to me if it's silly or not. I mean to me the point is to develop a love of reading right now, somewhat to begin learning phonics. But YMMV.

[silver]

I find non-fiction picture books to be hard. All the lists that are out there seem to be full of books that my library doesn't have. Many of the books my library does have don't have a "look inside" available on Amazon. So I wind up checking out several books on a topic and sorting them at home. I may get three-five different books on cells and find that one is too advanced, one is not that helpful, and the rest are OK (or sometimes even good). The ones that weren't a good match go back into our library bag to be returned without being read. We read the others.

 

For fiction picture books, I usually use Goodreads or Amazon to find recommendations based off of books that my family has enjoyed. Sometimes I browse Pinterest for lists of picture books. I have found that I'm more likely to be able to "look inside" a fiction picture book on Amazon (compared to the non-fiction ones). Sometimes we still get picture books that we don't like, but it's not a big deal to us. Into the library bag it goes!

 

My family checks out over 500 books a year form our library, most of them sight unseen. Some are duds. Some become family favorites and we purchase our own copy. 

 

 

[73349]

I agree that great books you read with your older kids should look familiar.

One other option is to request several books that *might* be good and give them a quick look when you show up to pick them up, giving your discards to a librarian for re-shelving and bringing the rest home.

[Milknhoney]

I use booklists, such as http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html. For littles, the FIAR lists are also good. Also in this forum, people (including me) frequently post asking for book suggestions, and I usually read those carefully. Once we hit a winner, I might see what else is by that author, or use the "customers who bought this also bought" feature in Amazon. Also, I will request more than I think I need, knowing that once I have them in hand, some may turn out to be duds.

 

Fon non-fiction, I might browse the catalog by subject matter if kids want a book on a particular topic, and consult Amazon if I want a preview inside. 

 

My library isn't really browse-able, in my opinion. They are grouped by fiction picture books, fiction easy readers, fiction chapter books, etc. But not by genre. So you would really need to spend so much more time browsing than having a guided booklist. Whenever I take my kids upstairs to the kids' section, they always end up walking out with the same things. They don't find new things. Or, my daughter might randomly grab something colorful off the shelf without really looking through choices and making a selection.

[happypamama]

Booklists.

Amazon.

If I type a book into my library's site, it typically will bring up other similar ones.

Binge on a particular author for a while; that can be fun too.

[mmasc]

Count me as another who uses book lists! I actually find picture books to be the easiest because I simply put them on hold from the list and since they're short books usually, no harm if we don't like them. My absolute favorite lists are from Memoria Press. Their read aloud lists for pre-k through 2nd are really good. You can even use their Science Enrichment lists to give you some quality nonfiction picture books. I just go online, search for any that my library has, put them on hold, and pick them up! Easy. :)

[Earthmerlin]

I agree with all above & honestly, online requests are how I conduct most of my library business. For the younger set, there may be pre-selected theme-based kits/bags. The kits would include both fiction & non-fiction books, CDs, DVDs, activity sheets, & manipulatives--all based around a theme (i.e., weather, holidays, alphabet).m

Edited July 31, 2017 by Earthmerlin

[barnwife]

Count me as another who uses book lists! I actually find picture books to be the easiest because I simply put them on hold from the list and since they're short books usually, no harm if we don't like them. My absolute favorite lists are from Memoria Press. Their read aloud lists for pre-k through 2nd are really good. You can even use their Science Enrichment lists to give you some quality nonfiction picture books. I just go online, search for any that my library has, put them on hold, and pick them up! Easy. :)

 

I ended up back in this post by accident, but need to say thank you! Memoria Press RA lists are among my go-to lists. I never realized they had science enrichment. But now I will start using it for sure!

[Syllieann]

Ditto what everyone else said wrt curriculum reading lists. In addition, I go by the motto, "If in doubt, check it out." I do try the Amazon see inside feature, but for many it is unavailable or insufficient. There's no shame in checking out a library book and deciding you don't want to read it after all.

[TABmom]

I use Pinterest. There's tons of book lists, by topic, by age group, etc. It's easy to browse and I've found lots of awesome stuff!

[carriede]

Also, just because a book comes home doesn't mean it gets read. There have been many books that sit in my closet until I can swing by and drop them off.

 

And, I try to make a specific outing for the kids to browse, but that is not MY browsing time. I can still veto what they pick, but I try to focus on the kids and what they're doing.

[fralala]

Ditto what everyone else said wrt curriculum reading lists. In addition, I go by the motto, "If in doubt, check it out." I do try the Amazon see inside feature, but for many it is unavailable or insufficient. There's no shame in checking out a library book and deciding you don't want to read it after all.

 

Yes, in fact, I would rather err in this direction, especially with older books, as my library is very discard-happy and getting checked out can help protect books from the dumpster.

 

I use all of the strategies mentioned above, and still consider it time, energy, and sanity saved over loading the kids into the car and unleashing them in the library. (A valuable experience, to be sure, but best done in small doses. There are just too many hiding places.)

[ElizabethB]

Can you make a trip to the library when you have time now and you and your older kids screen books and make lists of the good ones? Have each child take a letter of the alphabet to go through if they are alphabetical.

[luuknam]

I rarely checked out picture books from the library. I bought a bunch from a used bookstore for like 25 cents each, and just read and reread those. 

[Spring Flower]

We almost exclusively use our request system. One of our favorite things to do is choose an author that we love and order every. single. book. that the library carries. For non-fiction we choose a topic they are interested and search books that the library carries and request most or all of them. (We don't have a limit at our library.) I'm always on the look out for good books and authors. I much prefer to screen them online via amazon and then request specific titles. I find that browsing at the library can be really hit or miss. 

[BlsdMama]

We're going to be temporarily living in a big city and it looks as though the library is going to be a bit harder for me to access the way I'm used to. Typically, I take all the kiddos and go and browse. I pick out some non-fiction for each age group and some fiction for each age group. The older two can pick some of their own but they're expected to read what I choose. I do this as a way of broadening their horizons.

 

The trouble is that I just don't think that I'm going to be able to spend so much time browsing over the next few months. I really don't want to give up library books though. It's been such a good way to expose my dc to a plethora of topics that we would never visit just through textbooks. As an alternative I'm thinking of ordering my heap online and then just picking them up once a week.

 

My question is, how do you browse picture books online? I can easily pick books for my older two dc but for the littles I'm scratching my head at how to efficiently pick books. I really don't like most picture books at the library. They fiction is usually too silly or they have a mystical bent. With the non-fiction picture books I have to get the ones that are appropriate for my dc's comprehension and aren't boring "twaddle." When I go through the racks I might only select 1 in 30 to take home. How do you do it?

 

 

Is there a different option?  A meeting ground between browsing and online?  I would despise the online choice - I want to touch the book, turn the page, swoon over the detail. ;)

 

Check to see if your library has a reservation system.  I am certain it probably does - our town does and I am not sure I would qualify it as a "big city."  We get online, choose titles, they gather them up for us and then we pick up.  I manage this by pulling titles from homeschool catalogs, suggestions, authors I love, illustrators I love, topics we are currently studying, online suggestions.  

 

You might find my oldest daughter's suggestions very helpful: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3338449-anajoy-rusticgirl

She is an avid reader and broke down book suggestions by age and subject.

 

Then, when you pick up the books, you can take them home and look through them.  Anything you don't love, put right back in the bag.  Anything you love, put in the book basket.  Easy peasy.  You might grow to love this way better than the hunt and browse.  It saves me SO much more time.