I need some cheap books for my son, who will be nine later this month. He reads at about a seventh-grade level and absolutely devours books. I've looked on half.com and amazon.com, where the books are $0.50, but shipping is $2.49 each. I could go into LA and troll around the used book stores, but I was wondering if there's anyplace online with used books and reasonable shipping. Any ideas?
Posted by pcg at September 4, 2003 9:23 PMYou could see what amazon's used book sellers have to offer, although I think shipping will probably get you there, too. If you find a book for $1.50, the shipping will probably come close to that, bringing the total to what half.com is.
A google for "used books" returned abebooks.com. Looks like they specialize in used books, and while shipping might be a pain, they do make searching for books from the same seller easy, so you can save on shipping.
And, by the way, what books are you getting your son? Looking for suggestions?
Posted by: joel on September 4, 2003 10:20 PMNote to self: re-read post before commenting. Specifically, when he says "I looked on amazon.com", don't recommend looking on amazon.com. That is all.
Posted by: joel on September 4, 2003 10:21 PMdidn't know you had a 9y/o...mine turned 9 yesterday :)
You might ask at his school. Nick's school has used book drives 2-3x/year. Also, garage sales are great place to find books.
Posted by: slowe on September 4, 2003 11:48 PMSchool and library books sales are by far the best option if you can find them. They're not online, but you get material for dirt cheap and you cut out the delivery charges. Can you give examples of books he's recently read?
Posted by: alan on September 5, 2003 5:24 AMAndrew has recently read and is interested in fantasy (yay!) and humorous stories. We picked up a classic Weis/Hicks Dragonlance book and he read it in a couple of days. If we could pick up the Chronicles and Legends series that would be awesome. I think he would be interested in other fantasy that isn't overly complex (I think LotR *might* be a stretch, but maybe not) or inappropriate (no Heinlein, please).
Another of his favorite series is the Captain Underpants series. However, there are only a couple of books (very new ones in the series) that he hasn't read. His interest in potty humor makes me a little uncomfortable, but he *is* a 9yo boy. "Up with the poopy, down with showers" is his motto I think.
So what else is worth reading?
Posted by: pcg on September 5, 2003 8:23 AMEven if LOTR is a stretch, The Hobbit shouldn't be. I read that in fourth grade, IIRC.
I will always recommend Roald Dahl books, because they are always good. Some may be too young for a seventh grade reading level if you're looking for challenging reads, but for pure enjoyment, you can't beat them. My favorites include "The BFG", "The Witches", "Matilda", and "Danny, the Champion of the World", but really anything he wrote is good.
Ellen Raskin has written two books that I still read every so often -- "The Westing Game" and "The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)".
Robert Newton Peck writes some great humorous books (the "Soup" series), and several serious ones that you may want to peruse before he reads 'em.
If you're open to gothic horror for kids, John Bellairs is your man. I devoured those books as a young 'un, although I can't quite remember what age I was when I was reading those. "The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn" is a good one to start off with, if you don't want to get into the scary stuff right away.
Louis Sachar has written several memorable (for me) books -- "There's a Girl in the Boy's Bathroom" and "The Boy Who Lost His Face" both stand out. Both of those deal with some social situations that a 9 year old might not have to worry about yet, though. I'm trying to picture myself at 9, but I really don't remember what I was up to then. Oh, Sachar also wrote "Holes" more recently (the one they made the movie from), and it's quite excellent. And "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" are funny.
John D. Fitzgerald's "Great Brain" series is quite funny and enjoyable.
Has he read any of the OZ books? Don't know if that's his style or not, but I read all the original ones, as well as most or all of the non-Baum ones.
When you say Chronicles, do you mean "of Narnia", or is that a fantasy series that I'm unfamiliar with? I just finished reading the Narnia books (you can get all 7 in one big book), which would be a pretty cool birthday present (well, for me at least).
Um, I also read probably all of the Beverly Cleary books. "Dear Mr. Henshaw" and its sequel "Strider" make a nice combo.
Ooh, "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler". That one was good.
There are probably more, and many of those don't fall under either "fantasy" or "humor", but I fondly recall each and every one of those books. Many of those got read 3 or 4 times apiece, at least.
Posted by: joel on September 5, 2003 11:21 AMLike Joel, I can't recommend Dahl highly enough. I must have read "James and the Giant Peach" a dozen times when I was a kid.
If fantasy is Andrew's game right now, how about the Lloyd Alexander books? (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc) I'd also recommend L'Engle's (sic?) books, as I credit "A Wrinkle in Time" with stimulating much of my imagination as a child.
And Oh yeah, Captain Underpants rules. :-)
Posted by: jonathan on September 5, 2003 7:21 PM