I thought it would be hard to top the number of books we added to the library the end of August/beginning of September when we brought suitcases full of books from America. However, this year’s local Bookarama had around 44,000 books on offer, and we went twice. I won’t tell you how many books we brought home altogether (because I don’t know), but here are the ones that went directly onto the shelves. There are also stacks of them that we need to preview before adding them.

First up: The picture books. I was pleasantly surprised to find this Jungle Doctor Picture Fable. We now have three of them, and they are delightful! The Saggy Baggy Elephant is just a fun classic picture book. I had never read a Lighthouse Keeper book, but we all loved this one when I brought it home. It is funny! I Went to the Zoo is a fun story for young children; it’s along the lines of Jack in the Beanstalk, with something added to the story on each page. The Old Cattle Dog is a wonderful tribute to working dogs and their relationship with farmers. Another Amelia Bedelia book? Yes, please! And then, we found several more Lynley Dodd books that we didn’t have yet. Those are always fun to read aloud.

More picture books! All of my children have loved the Magic School Bus books, and while Blows Its Top and Hops Home are not as informative as the first set, they are still educational. Snow is a very easy reader. Lonesome George Finds His Friends is a beautiful easy reader about the Galapagos Islands. I don’t often find picture book biographies at places like this, so I was happy to find one, even though I had never heard of Louis Sockalexis before. The Bantam and the Soldier is a poignant glimpse into the Anzacs in World War I. I got Helping Paws for my dog-loving little girl. Look Out! is a very easy reader. We don’t have any other books about elephants, so I bought that one for the gorgeous pictures. I saw Let’s Find Out About Fishes in a box that someone was preparing to send to the dump–I quickly asked if I could have it! My youngest loves the Can You See What I See books. Where’s Wally actually didn’t come from the Bookarama; it was rescued from a burn pile last year but only now got added to the library.

Lucy & Tom’s Christmas is a gorgeous picture book of a family celebrating together. We had a different Little Yellow Digger book, but not the first one. My littlest loves the series that Grandpa Kangaroo is in. I think the stories are rather silly, but the photography is amazing. Ships and Seafarers of the South Pacific is a good addition to our Junior History Shelf. The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive is one of the original, more informative series. Autumn Muster is a beautiful glimpse into high-country farming here in New Zealand.

I bought Skateboards, Scooters and Racers to add to the Art/Craft shelf. I had to reconstruct the back cover; it looked like it had caught fire! The Danger Zone books are intended as a humorous look at history. I had never come across a book about the Bediun people before finding B is for Bedu! What a fascinating peek into the lives of these nomads.

I also bought a number of classics. Isn’t this edition of A Tale of Two Cities beautiful? Notice the date on the label inside the front cover. I’ve been looking for an unabridged hardcover copy of Heidi for a long time, and finally found a beautiful one! I was delighted with these copies of The Swiss Family Robinson and Eight Cousins, as well. The Companion Library edition of Rip Van Winkle and Toby Tyler isn’t gorgeous, but I like Washington Irving’s stories pretty well, so I got it.

Window on the World is one of the books I sold about 10 years ago in a temporary fit of insanity and minimalism. This one is in nearly-new condition. I had been considering buying it new again to use with my youngest two daughters’ history/geography lessons. I bought Play It Again because sometimes we need ideas for new games. One of my children picked up Welsh Tales; she loves collections of stories.

These are some of the books we acquired earlier, and now have added to the shelves. I bought Baby Island because we love the author. It is perfect for baby-loving little girls who also like adventure stories! As I read it aloud, one of my younger boys was holding out for the cannibals to show up on the tropical island–what really happened was much better! We’ve read or listened to In the Presence of My Enemies several times, so when a copy was found at a secondhand shop, it was snatched up. I read The Trailblazing Life of Daniel Boone to my daughter for history. She was rather bored, but I liked the way it told the story of everything that happened in the colonies and the new United States during Daniel Boone’s life, rather like Genevieve Foster’s books.

My youngest has loved Lulu and the Dog From the Sea for a few years, requesting it to be read to her a couple of times, so when I saw two more Lulu books advertised on Facebook, I got them for her birthday. Then, I found another at the Bookarama! I’ve now read her two of them, and we’re halfway through the third. These are great for young animal lovers. They are on the Independent Readers shelf, for children who are transitioning from Easy Readers to longer books.

I’ve read The Love Dare on Kindle, and found it very good, so I got the copy I found at the Bookarama. I’ve been working on reading Astounding Truths of the Bible as a devotional for a long time, and finally finished it. I got Norman Rockwell’s American Family when I saw it on Facebook, and we all really enjoyed studying the pictures.

I’m hoping to find more of the spin-off books from the Little House series; my girls like them. So, I got On Top of Concord Hill. One of my boys, the only one who likes to collect books, picked up The Twelve Million Dollar Note at the Bookarama. He read it already and really enjoyed it. I found True Tales of Animal Heroes at a secondhand shop while we were in America, and read it to my littlest as a bedtime story; she loves this type of book. One of my girls actually bought Stories for Eight-Year-Olds a year ago, but somehow it never got entered into our library! Esther found Irma’s Big Lie some time ago, and finally read it. It sounds like one I would enjoy reading aloud. Apparently, the protagonist learns the value of honesty! We found a couple of Paddington books that we didn’t have. Esther is collecting those, so they came home with us to go on the Independent Readers shelf.

Some of my recent buys on Facebook included two Clyde Robert Bulla books for the Independent Readers shelf. We love his books! I remember reading these two when I was young. I was also able to complete my series of the Milly Molly Mandy books, more that my youngest loves. There is no real plot to them; they are simply lovely stories about a little girl and her friends. I also added A Girl of the Limberlost to the shelf for circulation, since we sourced dust jacket covers to protect the beautiful, but fragile, dust cover. And lastly, Indian Two Feet and His Horse, another lovely Easy Reader that I remember my siblings reading 30 odd years ago. It is delightful!

I spent a Sunday afternoon this month previewing some of the American Girls books I brought home from America. I remember reading and enjoying these books when they first came out, in the 1980s, so I bought some of them for my girls. I noticed that Molly had some bad attitudes, and treated others in ways that weren’t so nice, but each time she ended up seeing the error of her way and apologizing. About that same time I also preread these two new I Survived books. The American Revolution one is rather violent (quite realistic), but I really liked The Black Death–it’s probably my favorite in the series so far.

I found time to read a couple of books that have been here for several years without being read, as well. The Midnight Fox turned out to be a wonderfully heartwarming story of a boy who grew up one summer. The Boy on the Wooden Box is the story of a boy who was saved by Schindler, during the Holocaust. I read King George: What Was His Problem? to one of my children as part of our study of American History. It was a fresh, new look at the American Revolution; I liked the way the author wove the story of a particular soldier through the book. To Ride the Gods’ Own Stallion is one of the books I brought home from America, and so is The Ark. We just finished reading both of them out loud. The first is set in Ancient Assyria, so the violence that shows up is not surprising. For about half the way through the book, I was debating about keeping it, but by the time we reached the end, we knew it was a keeper. The changes that came about in the lives of the main characters were worth reading about. The Ark is one that I read some 30-35 years ago, from the library, and have wished to have on the shelf for many years. It has just been reprinted by Purple House Press, and they had a very good sale earlier this year. I loved having the chance to read this family story together–it’s special! I also brought The 40-Day Sugar Fast home with us from America. It is well worth reading and doing a fast, whether from sugar, or from books, as I did for 40 days after we came home.

And, to wrap up this month, here are a few more books from the Bookarama! I skimmed through these Magic School Bus books and then handed them to my 10-year-old, who loves them. She helped me to make sure we got all the evolutionary references marked out. And lastly, here is a hardcover copy of A Christmas Carol, which one of my boys picked up. It is a beautiful edition!

Here are the rest of the books we brought home in our suitcases from America–at least, the ones that have been added to the library right away!

My children have all loved Carolyn Haywood’s books; one of my boys especially loved the Eddie books when he was about six or eight years old. These books are hard to find, so I was delighted to be able to get five of them!

I also like the Heroes for Young Readers, adaptations of the Christian Heroes: Then & Now and Heroes of History books for older children. These are the stories of famous people told in rhyme, with full-color illustrations.

I was able to get the Eloise Wilkin Stories collection and the Mother Goose book when Sonlight Curriculum had their clearance sale. I love Eloise Wilkin’s picture books! My littlest loves the Mother Goose book. I had read it aloud to her already when I found it online, and she is enjoying it again. I got How to Eat a Poem to go with a level of Sonlight we’ll be using soon. I got The Valentine Cat because we love Clyde Robert Bulla. We also like the animal stories from Thornton W. Burgess. Both of those are on the Independent Readers shelf. My mom was sorting out books to get rid of, to make more room on her shelves, and I asked her for The Usborne First Thousand Words in Spanish, since we already had the same book in English.

I also brought home a lot of adult fiction books–mainly women’s fiction. The Heart of Christmas and Song of Grace are anthologies of about half a dozen novellas by as many different authors. In each one, I enjoyed most of the stories. I wrote a review of The Thomas Sisters earlier this year, as well as The Daughter of Rome, The Aftermath, and What I Left for You. Esther and I both read and reviewed The Atlas of Untold Stories–easily my favorite of all these titles!

Sometime in the past year, my favorite author, Chautona Havig, offered a number of her books at half price because she had too many on her shelves. I jumped at the chance to get some I didn’t have in print yet. Under the Hibiscus, The Title Wave, and Trust Fall are a series set on a Pacific Island. Trust Fall is also a spin-off of The Agency Files. The New Cheltenham books are a fun series of Christmas books. Induction is the prequel to the entire Agency series, though written much later. I really liked Dial I for Identity–what is our identity in Christ? Clock Tower Bound is the fourth book in the Bookstrings series. Warning: It may make you want to read a lot of other books! I downloaded an audio book after reading this one. And Moore’s Code? Well, it’s the only Santa Claus book I have ever even wanted to read–and it’s fun! It is not a Christian story, but it does show character growth. And, it’s just plain fun.

We have a couple of new picture books! I Can’t Sleep is a delightful wordless book about a family who all apparently suffered from insomnia. The Practical Princess was given to us by a private lending library in the United States who partnered with Purple House Press to give a copy to each library registered on Biblioguides. I happened to be in the United States when they made this offer, and there was just enough time for them to send me a copy before we returned home. I am not big on fairy tales, but my little girls love them, and this is a delightful story. The book is sheer pleasure to hold, too; it is a well-bound hardcover. I recently bought a roll of dust jacket covers, so I have protected the beautiful cover that way.

We added a few more books to the Junior fiction shelf. I was able to get two more Jungle Doctor books. We are reading a Jungle Doctor book aloud in the mornings now, and really enjoying it. Raiders From the Sea is the first book in a series that I read to the children about 10 years ago. I bought the set in Kindle format, and we raced through them as fast as I could read. After reading each one, I paused long enough to write a review of it before moving on to the next–much to my children’s dismay, as they wanted to find out what happened next! I’m hoping to find the rest of the series eventually.

I found this copy of Now We Are Six at a secondhand shop one day. We love A. A. Milne’s poems! We also love Encyclopedia Brown. I actually bought four at once, but three were borrowed before I remembered to take a picture of them or had a chance to put them on the Independent Readers shelf. Esther just read Dreams Of Victory. This Junior Fiction book reminded her of Anne of Green Gables in a modern setting!

I bought this Easy Reader adaptation of The Black Stallion because I knew my youngest, who is starting to read, would love it. Speaking of Easy Readers, notice the crayon on the spine label? I color-coded the easy readers recently, hoping that will help choose the right books for beginners. I sorted the books into four levels, doing my best to match the ones with similar amounts of text on the pages. This one is in the third level. From Fear to Freedom is another book that Esther recently read. It is an inspiring account of a missionary and her life in New Guinea and will be on the Adult Biographies shelf. I bought The Dolphin Rider to add to our Classics shelf because twice in a few months my boys needed to read an adapt a Greek myth as part of their Language Arts curriculum.

When we did an inventory of our books to make sure that what we have on the shelf matches what is in the catalog, we came across In the Footprints of the Lamb, and Esther realized it should be on the Devotionals shelf instead of with the classics. It looks like a good one!