How to feed dd1's addiction to books without breaking the bank?

[Marne]

Dd1 is 7 and loves books, due to our local library closing i cant afford to keep driving to the nearest library. She's getting through 3 books a week (as well as the books she brings home from school), her bedroom looks like a book shops, she reads them once and thats it (they get put with the others), i have spent a fortune on 'dairy of a wimpy kid' and similar books and i can't afford to keep buying them, i look in charity shops but can't find the kind of things she likes to read.

Is there anywhere where we can swap books? or anywhere really cheep where i can buy them?, just seems a waste spending £5-£10 on a book and it only lasts 2 days .

Also can anyone reccomend any books for a 7 year old? (not girly) as i am running out of ideas .

Have you thought about getting her a kindle?

High initial outlay, but there are loads of free books available.

What about the local church, do they have coffee mornings? Does her school not have a library?

The book people website does good box sets and often the books work out £1 or £2 each.

charity shop? I find loads of interesting stuff for my kids

also, how many books can you take out at a time from the library? When I was a kid I used to take 10 at a time and work my way through them before taking them back

can she do book swaps with friends?

I seem to recall reading roald dahl, anne of green gables, the worst witch at that age

www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx?CategoryID=8&CategoryName=Children+%26+Young+Adult&PageID=1&BookType=999&InCategory=True

Her school should have a library as well as sending books home for her. Otherwise see if your local council has a mobile library, you can request particular books if the selection isn't great.

Perhaps you could talk the library into giving her more books on her ticket? (Our library stamps books out for three weeks and you can have six books, so if she's getting through three books per week, ideally you need nine books on your ticket?)

Also you could try ReadItSwapIt which is a book swapping service. You list all the books you're willing to swap, search for a book you want and ask to swap it. The site sends a link to your book list, and if the other person sees something they fancy, you send them to each other through the post. It's all done automatically with computer generated messages - no awkward "i don't really fancy any of your books actually"

I'm not sure how many children's books they list, but I've definitely seen them in passing.

x-posts.

She's just started a new school and so far she only gets one reading book (old school used to give her 2, her reading book and a library book), i will try and find out if there any other keen readers in her class (she only has couple friends so far so could be tricky). She's read Roald dahl (loved them), will have a look at the others.

Love the idea of a kindle, might be a good idea for christmas.

OK, they've got 20139 titles listed under Children and Young adults

you could get books out on your ticket as well as well
swap with friends -
has she read the little house books?

Another vote for the heavily discounted sets from The Book People. Then when she's finished with them, try swapping with friends.

Our library let's you take out children's books on an adult ticket - so you could max out your library trips that way. And borrow as much as you can from school.

And hope she discovers the joys of endlessly rereading old favourites soon!

Bootfairs are fab for books, but you'd need to get to some soon as there won't be any soon. although some places have indoor ones.

How about the school? Do they allow the children to borrow books?

Maybe ask her friends parents if their children have books you could swap/borrow

Ask for a truck load for christmas/birthday

Or suggest she re-reads the older books?

Read it swap it doesn't really solve the problem tho, it still costs in postage.

The school should be meeting her needs for reading books, if she is a prolific reader. You need to talk to her teacher and if you get no joy then take it to the head or the board of governors. It's ridiculous that a seven year old pupil can't get sufficient reading material from school

As for (non-girly) suggestions for books for her 7yo DS is currently reading a Mr Gum book and loves it. He said a couple of others at school also love them.

Book People currently have a set of 8 books for £9.99

here you go

Second Hand book shop or jumble sales. Red House books doesn't have bad prices here - about £2 for a paperback

We're lucky here as each person can get 20 books on their ticket at once. And children don't get any fines (which is useful here ).

Charity shops can be very useful. And places like the Book People and Red House have ones cheaply (although I personally find the Book People not as good as it used to be).

There is a website called BookMooch that I use sometimes - you put your books you don't want into an inventory and if someone wants one, they pay you a point. You post it to them and then can use points you get to get books from other people.

Ebay can also be good - there may be books being sold nearby that you can pick up, or quite a lot of book sellers will combine postage.

I very rarely pay full price for a book but I do love knowing that someone else has had a book first and that the enjoyment carries on (or something like that)

try some of the classics like the secret garden, swallows and amazons, e nesbitt, enid blyton, wind in the willows, cs lewis, lewis carroll etc. I read a lot of these quite young and then read them again when I was older (so keep them) and it was like reading a new book as you saw something different with older eyes

is there a risk of eye strain with a kindle? i always like the feel of a book but find a kindle tempting!

I meant to ask whether they have a mobile library in your area as it sounds as if you are miles from the nearest one?

If so I think you can order in advance and they'll bring them along

Our local library ( rural) let you take LOADS of books on each ticket 20 IIRC, I have a ticket, DS has one, we share one for the Mobile.

Does her school have a library?
Is there a class bookshelf and has she read all of it?
What are her friends reading and do they swop books?

I think you need to find someone locally of a similar age to swap with. Can you ask around? Send out emails, texts, etc?

May be worth a wanted ad on freegle too, lots of people have a clear out after the school hols, leading up to [whispers] xmas.

Ask school if they can increase how many she lends from school library per week, and ask if they could do a swap shop between students maybe (they would maybe even be open to sending out a note askng if any other parents would like to swap books to save on the amount bought.

Ask if library can increase your ticket allowance to make it worth the trip?

Cheap sources of books: red house, school fetes, carboots, jumble sales, charity shops, sale rack in library.

Definitely charity shops!

Book recommendations (some might be a bit advanced for her, but she'll grow into them - these are my own most-loved so they are a bit historic):
Secret Garden
A Little Princess
Little House on the Prairie
Pippi Longstockings
Narnia series
Anne of Green Gables

Authors:
Enid Blyton
Roald Dahl
Paul Jennings

Just had a look at the kindle and it still looks quite expensive to buy the books/e-books (£2-£5 each), not sure about the eye staining either, she already spends too much time staring at the pc , we were thinking of getting her a i-pad (well something not as expensive).

I will try and talk to the school although i think they already think i'm being pushy as i have complained in her book as she has been put on purple level (whatever level that is?) reading books when she had been a free reading for the past year at the other school.

We do have a mobile library (i think) but i'm not sure how well stocked it is, i guess we could ask for books and they will get them in?