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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Going to the Library Bookstore

In the last year or so, we've been taking the big girls to our local library branch pretty regularly, and letting them check out books.  That's our branch at the left, isn't it pretty? 

When we first started going, they were kind of confused, because they'd been to bookstores, and knew that you kept the books you got from there.  When we'd get books, and then bring them back, they'd end up kind of sad because they didn't get to keep the books. 

Our real breakthrough in getting them to understand how great a library was came when we started looking up books in the catalog that they might enjoy.  They'd think of a particular story they'd enjoyed, and ask if there were more like them.  "Hey, could we get another Lyle, Crocodile book?" or "how about Clifford the Big Red Dog?"  We'd end up with a pile of books, sometimes 15 or 20, and they suddenly realized that you do have to take the books back to the library, but, and here's the thing...you can get as many as you want!

They'll pick out a pile of books, and put them into their library book bag.  This is just a tote bag that we designated for library books. They usually take them home to mama or daddy's, and then when it's time for them to go back, either they'll bring them with them on Sunday, or their mom or dad will run them by the library.  We had a misplaced book once, but it was found pretty quickly, and returned.

For some reason, they call it the library-bookstore.  I think there's still some idea that we're buying the books, or at least renting them for a while.  The funny thing is that this has changed their ideas about Redbox - they really can't understand why you have to pay to rent some things, like DVDs from Redbox, but not others, like books from the library.  Hmm, I guess a book on capitalism is in order.

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