Shelving those gift books

By Anne Boles Levy

I'm probably the only mother who insists we don't need kids' books for Chanukah. None. Zero. Nada. Naturally, my relatives ignore me. Books are easy: they always fit, they're not a choking hazard, they don't get recalled. What's not to like?

Trouble is, these gifts, however well intended, just get tossed on the pile. And it's a big pile. At last count, we have 200 picture books on hand. This is after donating 150 to Katrina victims last year and an equal number to various school teachers, friends and a favorite literacy program. When we sold our house in August, a trunkload somehow never made it out of our Toyota Echo -- now in a Self-Stor in California.

We moved to a two-bedroom Chicago apartment generously termed "cozy," which would be accurate if we'd stopped growing at three feet tall and only ever stood sideways. Our main furniture is, unsurprisingly, shelves, uniformly covered with pulped trees.

If there's a spare inch atop a dresser, it sports a plastic bin of board books. And every few days there's a Post-it on our mail slot from the UPS elf. Boxes keep coming, as reliable as this city's legendary wind.

The cause of so much largess: I review children's literature at my blog. I couldn't possibly critique all the titles I receive and still keep track of whether my kids have eaten or bathed this week, but publishers are a hopeful lot. Once you get on their lists, it is forever. The universe may be flying apart and we will all be cosmic dust someday, but I'll still be somebody's best friend at Random House.

This isn't a terrible problem to have, I admit. For Seth, each day brings new discoveries or a happy reunion with a long-lost, dog-earred friend. He gets veto power over what stays or goes, a lesson I learned after a few meltdowns.

But what to do about Chanukah presents? One relative called from a store the other week, where she was browsing -- guess where. The book section! What did Seth already have?

Sigh. Where do I begin?

Anne Boles Levy lives with her husband and two children in Chicago.

Comments

[Literacy Teacher]

Would you mind submitting some of your picture book posts to http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_1951.html, which is the Picture Book Carnival I set up? I'm trying to get a big Carnival going here so we can all learn from each other.

THANKS!!!

[rachel]

I'm still of the theory that you can never have enough books, but many of ours have been put up for over 6 months due to a flood, so we have been living on books from the library.

I will admit that it's nice to have books come in and then go out again!

[Anne]

A few months after I started my blog, I wrote or emailed the publicity departments at different publishing houses. You can get that information from their websites on their "contact us" pages.

It helps if you have a specific niche (such as Middle Grade fiction or knitting patterns or Graphic Novels), if your blog has been running for several months with regular posts and if you can cite other, bigger blogs who have linked to you.

If you need books to review right away to get started, most people I know either review books already in their homes or borrowed from the library. Keep at it.

At least one publisher has complained to me that they're getting wary of bloggers just trying to scam free books, so don't be disappointed if it takes time to win a few of them over.

Good luck!

[Wendy]

I'm looking to GET on a publishers list for reviewing books. Any ideas how?