Posted on 56 Comments

gotta love a library that never weeds

Oscar and I are reading this book.

We’re loving it! Oscar thinks it’s hilarious and I’m just so glad to be getting a break from the magic tree house books he loves.

On deck for us, more hi-jinks

And these are for me. These are the books, probably the exact books, I read as a tween… in the 80s. Nothing like heading into high school armed with vital morality tales like the Luckiest Girl who realizes of course how lucky she is to have a pink raincoat with black velveteen buttons and how mother always knows best.

And some Lois Lenski because I can never pass up Lois Lenski.

56 thoughts on “gotta love a library that never weeds

  1. If these were from my local library, I would steal them in a hot second.

  2. I love Homer Price! I have a similar copy.

  3. i want to marry that library of yours. the luckiest girl? i read that same edition. perhaps that’s why i’ve been hankering for a pink raincoat!

  4. Of course, if they weeded, these would probably end up in the book sale and then they could be all yours!

  5. I volunteer at our local library’s book sale – books they are taking off the shelves and donations. I find lots of the 80’s kid stuff. Bought a set of “great stories” for less than $10. The kids section is one of my favorite to work. You should see the old reading textbooks.

  6. Wow! I didn’t realize you were from Wheaton. I went to Wheaton my Freshman and Sophomore years before deciding to run away to California for art school. I loved Wheaton, but ultimately think it was too small for me at the time. I wish I could live there now though. I so adore Chicago AND Wheaton itself with all of its lovely, lovely trees! I wonder how much it has changed! I am so glad I spotted that label on your library books. I even know the library! It is always fun to make a personal connection!
    Erin 🙂

  7. Oh my- The Luckiest Girl!!! The memories of reading under the covers late, late at night. I can’t wait until my little Phoebe (4) is old enough to read it too!

  8. Oh my gosh, I have been trying to remember a favorite book from my youth and there it is! Homer Price! I loved that one.

  9. Oh how I love The Luckiest Girl! That cover is the only one for me. I once tried to check it out of the library, but it was the wrong cover and I simply couldn’t read it! Enjoy your books! I just started reading Beezus and Ramona to my 5-year old and she loves them. Next up is Mrs. Piggle Wiggle!

  10. You might want to check out “Mitch and Amy,” which is also by Beverly Cleary. Great book! I always wanted to have twins and name them Mitch and Amy.

  11. Beverly Cleary is my all time favorite author from childhood and I’m perpetuating the addiction. Our library has the Cleary Ramona books on CD read by Stockard Channing who I might add does a fabulous job. The kids are thoroughly entranced and we have to gently guide them to other selections otherwise it would be Ramona for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

  12. I *loved* The Luckiest Girl! And if I ever ever EVER find a pink raincoat with black velveteen buttons, nothing would be able to stop me from buying it.

  13. I have yet to read any magic tree house books but they sound pretty popular with the 5 and unders. we must be missing out. i have my old set of ramona books (sadly falling apart), and so far i’ve read Ramona the Pest and Beezus and Ramona to my 4 year old. then we visited the ramona, henry and ribsy statues at grant park!

  14. Don’t forget Otis Spofford. I wanted to grow up to be Beverly Cleary when I was little. My idol.

  15. I read almost all the Beverly Cleary books when I was a kiddo in Southern Oregon, and then it nearly blew my mind when I moved to Portland and saw the real Klickitat street! 🙂 I haven’t read “The Luckiest Girl” though – might have to pick that one up!

  16. The Luckiest Girl! I loved that book – I am going to have to track that one down!

  17. Wow! I’m a children’s librarian, and we NEVER keep stuff that old. It looks fantastic! (I just found some books of my grampa’s from his childhood – published in the 20’s – super fun).

  18. Wow! I’m a children’s librarian, and we NEVER keep stuff that old. It looks fantastic! (I just found some books of my grampa’s from his childhood – published in the 20’s – super fun).

  19. Wow! I’m a children’s librarian, and we NEVER keep stuff that old. It looks fantastic! (I just found some books of my grampa’s from his childhood – published in the 20’s – super fun).

  20. We have access to a library in a small village. My happiest find was an old Wizard of Oz. LOVE those old illustrations!

  21. We have access to a library in a small village. My happiest find was an old Wizard of Oz. LOVE those old illustrations!

  22. We have access to a library in a small village. My happiest find was an old Wizard of Oz. LOVE those old illustrations!

  23. What an awesome library! We have an old book-hoarding library nearby and I love inflicting treasures from my youth on my littles. We’re enjoying the ‘Small’ series of books by Lois Lenski, ‘Captain Small’ being the favourite so far. I’ll have to investigate his other works too!

  24. Try Mr. Popper’s Penguins. We loved that one.

  25. We do have a great library. I was just thinking about how much I love it to.
    I requested Sewing Green by Betz White. And the purchased it and another book I requested. It like a gift that I don’t get to keep! But that’s O.K because I don’t mind sharing. LOL

  26. Fantastic books! I loved Homer Price! Actually it was my brother’s book, but he never was into reading it so I kept it in my nightstand drawer. I was prone to nightmares and when I would wake up from a really bad nightmare I would get out Homer Price and read some of it and it would get my mind off my nightmare and I was able to go back to sleep! I still have that old book packed up someplace safe. If I can just remember where!
    Have a Blessed Day,
    Diane
    Actually I think it is in my cedar chest with other keepsakes.

  27. Great selection — gotta love that Homer Price and the doughnut machine! Oscar is a lucky little boy to have a mom who knows a good book when she sees one!

  28. I was pawing the Betsy-Tacy books at our library the other day! Somebody checked out ‘Betsy, Tacy, and Tib’, otherwise I would have borrowed the whole lot together. Love ’em. I think they still have the copies I checked out as a kid.

  29. Oh – Betsy-Tacy! I’d started to think those books were a figment of my imagination. Beverly Cleary is an old favorite, too. Although my super-duper most favorite series by Mary Norton: the Borrowers.

  30. Wow! what a trip down memory lane! I always loved Emily’s Runaway Imagination and my mom loved Fifteen… she read it as a girl in Japan and that was her ideal image of teenage love!

  31. Ellen Tebbits is my all-time fave book from childhood. I read all of Beverly Cleary’s books in elementary school.
    I recently saw that a Ramona movie is in production by Disney.

  32. Jean and Johnny makes me happy – and starts out with a handmade skirt! (with a jog in the plaid!)

  33. The ones in the first picture are the exact ones that my mom passed on to me from the 60s. I loved her Homer Price one about the donuts.

  34. Man, I loved all those books. (Literally.) My current library doesn’t have them – love the WPL!

  35. My favorites from my childhood are Carolyn Haywood the Betsey series. I still think of them as an adult and went to Barnes and Noble to see if they carried them for my daughter and they said they would order them but I would love the originals. I can still remember sitting at story time and the teacher reading them and then reading them myself when I learned to read.
    Hey, there’s always ebay!

  36. I work at the Geneva library ( down a few towns from you) if they circulate we don’t weed them!

  37. oh man! Some of those books, I remember so well. But there are some new ones I must check out! Love Lois Lenski!

  38. Oh how I loved Beverly Cleary … You are so lucky. Must go check my local libraries for those classics …

  39. LOVE these books! Homer Price and Betsy & Tacy are so awesome! I so want to find all of the books from my childhood and pass them onto my kids! thanks for the memories!

  40. You hit the treasure trove!
    And I hear you on moving away from Jack and Annie. We have read them all, in order, up through the Winter of the Ice Wizard. Thankfully, we’ve taken a break and moved on to Narnia {we just started The Silver Chair}.
    I think Beverly Cleary might be another nice change.
    🙂

  41. i could just DIE for the artwork on all those books!!!! LOVE!

  42. I loved reading Beverly Cleary books, and I loved reading them even more to my children! Try looking for Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, it’s one of my family’s favorites! I think you would really love reading this to your son.

  43. I love Beverly Cleary books. I am green with envy over your vintage versions. I may have to do some Internet shopping to see if I can pick up the old ones.

  44. I’m an elementary school librarian and when ever I weed stuff like that I just can’t throw it out. Even with missing pages! I found a shop on etsy called openbooks and they’ll turn your old books into the greatest journals! Go look! Best, MM-K

  45. Frannie and I have just finished reading Ellen Tebbits and Ramona and Her Mother. Tomorrow she wants to check out Otis Spofford. They are great books for reading together with your daughter.
    S.W.A.K.

  46. Those are ALL some of my favorite books ever! I could and still do read them over and over, and I can’t wait to share them with my kids.

  47. *SWOON* You like Lois Lenski too?!!
    I thought I was the only one
    Shortly before I had my baby girl, I would take my 2 boys (then 2 and 1.5)to the library and I found a 1973 edition of “the Little Auto”…since then I bought it online and added several more of Lenski’s books to our collection.
    The Little Auto is still my oldest’s favorite. : )

  48. Ooh, so amazing! I too collect the original Beverly Cleary books with the Louis Darling illustrations, and Lois Lenski too, so I gasped out loud when I saw your library’s stash.
    Lovely! from Oona (with a daughter named Ramona) in Portland, Oregon 🙂

  49. oh the Besty – Tacy books are the best! I even have that exact copy. Enjoy your vintage reads!

  50. Yay! My little Oz loves Lois Lenski too. His fave is Cowboy Small. Have you seen that one? Too cute.

  51. Ahhh I too reread my fav’s when my children were little. When the news made me weep I NEEDED to centre myself with ‘Heidi’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables’ (OK. The entire Anne series) revisited. I think that I HAD to connect up with that innocent time. Morals Blk and wht. Yes, a save world to share with our precious babies.

  52. I also suffered whenever my boys chose the Magic Treehouse or worse yet, when younger, the Berenstain Bears. We were all happy when reading Beverly Cleary books out loud and I completely share your passion for the original vintage art. My favorite period for children’s lit illustration is the 1920s. Our library weeds often and I snatch up the greatest things at the book sale, including a very early edition of To Kill a Mockingbird for a quarter, complete with DJ.

  53. Wow – your Library is definitely one after my own heart, I can never bear to weed out any old stock but then there is never enough space for the new books… I would love to have a local library with a few books like that tucked away 🙂

  54. GASP! Vintage Beverley Cleary books! I was obsessed with her books in elementary school. I think I should look into collecting them all… just because. :)a

  55. I love all the old covers! Homer Price! Did they have Mr. Popper’s Penguins or the Finches Fabulous Furnace?

  56. Great books. I absolutely loved The Luckiest Girl, like so many others. I think my mom still has the original at her house.
    Melissa @ babygiftsandshowers.com

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