01 June 2010

Free Books!

I am probably the last parent in the universe to know about this, but thanks to Raising Weg, I now know that you can download summer book-reading forms from Borders and Barnes & Noble: kids read books, write 'em down, and redeem the list for a free book. That sounds splendid to me, and I bet I can get my increasingly fluent little reader on board.

Incidentally, she is currently mad for the Magic Treehouse series and last week, she brought Dingoes at Dinnertime home from school. As you can imagine, its title prompted a round of "a dingo ate my baby" which the girlie can now do in a nice Streep imitation. (I can't find Streep doing it; here's Elaine.) I mean, don't you have to say that out loud every time you hear the word "dingo"? It's kind of like I can't drive through Yonkers without saying "Yonkers, where true love conquers", but I digress. Free books! Get your kids to read!

14 comments:

Harriet said...

Borders has a good program too: http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_doubledogdare

Harriet said...

Oops. You had Borders there. I didn't see it because I'd already been to the site and it was whited out.

Liz Miller said...

I downloaded B&N's but their books don't look all that interesting. Now I'm going over to Borders.

Bibliomama said...

I do have to say it every time -- I really do. And when someone else says it they're my beloved friend for life.

I love the Magic Tree House books in theory -- it's just the annoying badly-edited writing that I sort of loathe.

Julia said...

Bibliomama,
Magic Treehouse books are great in third grade when you need to teach your child to identify incomplete sentences. There are tons of examples! (Like every other sentence) (<-- heh heh)

m said...

Seriously. I hate MTH because of the damn fragments.

mayberry said...

Oops, that last one was me. I'm glad to hear about the free books!

Kyla said...

Yeah, we're really looking forward to participating in these!

Life in Eden said...

OMG, I zone out so bad reading MTH that I didn't even realize that they were fragments -- that is how disembodied I become! The Snake loved them for awhile, and I was glad to see the writing become a bit more complex in the later books, but now he has moved on to A to Z Mysteries. While formulaic, they are certainly an easier read. Thanks for the tip!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

It's really annoying when you say, "a dingo ate my baby" and everyone looks at you like you're crazy. It's good to know your daughter would know what I'm talking about!

painted maypole said...

MQ has already completed the library's 10 hour reading goal. I'll get her started on these right away. She should have at least one free book by Thursday. I'm afraid we're going to run out of books at the library! I can't get her interested in magic treehouse, although she has reading her way through the magic school bus, rainbow magic and captain underpants series - just in the last few weeks.

nonlineargirl said...

Ada is in love with those books too. She is obstinately refusing to let us read them in strict order. I bring home four or five from the library and she deliberately chooses to read them out of order.

FreshHell said...

The kids came home from school the other day with those forms from B&N. I just need to help them fill them out (a chore, which is why we don't do the library's summer reading program anymore).

Dusty LOVED that series and we have about 25 of them waiting for Red to get interested in them.

The Library Lady said...

The BN and Borders programs have very limited choice in your reward book. The one year SC came home with the form from school we ended up buying her a different book of her own choice instead!

There's a place with free books and people who actually know something about them beyond the flavor of the month/mass media crap. It's called the library.
And yeah, Maggie, I know you use yours. But it never fails to amaze me how many people are willing to shill out tons of money on bookstores rather than have to worry about paying library fines!

We generally don't hand out free books to take home and keep permanently. On the other hand, that's a good thing--limits the permanent clutter in your house, and I speak as the wife of a book accumulator.

I've seen our simple little summer reading program (a sticker chart) turn kids--including my own younger daughter--into enthusiastic readers. In 3rd grade JR barely read. Now at the end of 5th she is reading Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and is making her own year round list of books--current goal, 100 books!