Bookstore Love

I love visiting a bookstore with a well stocked children's section.  And if I find a salesperson that is knowledgeable about children's books I can stay in the store forever.  My husband and I took a trip out to the east end of Long Island this summer for a day full of wine tasting, hiking and fun.  When we stopped in Mattituck for a bite to eat I noticed a bookstore on the corner, so of course we had to stop in and check out the place.  BookHampton is smaller place, but the children's section is well stocked and the salesperson was eager to talk about the books with me.  I left with a bag full of books including Tad Hills' Rocket Writes a Story and Mo Willems' Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs.  I know I will definitely stop at BookHampton whenever I am in the area.

There is also a discount bookstore nearby called Best Bargain books.  This store is hit or miss when it comes to finding exactly what is on my reading list, but I always leave with a bag full of books that I didn't know I was looking for.  One time I was able to find 15 different Gail Gibbons book at a very good price.

My best bookstore memory has to be when my children were very young.  I think they were in early elementary grades.  We were at a local discount book store, (which has since gone out of business) and my son, who was carrying a stack of books, looked up at me and asked, "Mommy, is this a place that we check out the books or buy the books?"

A couple of times a year I drive to the Book Revue in Huntington.  It's about 45-60 minutes away, depending on the traffic.  I always go once during the summer and once during a winter vacation day.  Today is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday so after bringing the dog to the vet I drove to the Book Revue. (The vet bill was higher than expected, so I had concerns about my book budget.)  I have a list of books that I keep on my Goodreads app, but I also just love looking through the shelves to see what I can find.  I have to be honest, over the last several years the Book Revue's children's department seems to have dwindled, and many shelves have been replaced with toys.  I really wanted to find a copy of Fifty Cents and a Dream, but no such luck.  Here's what I purchased;

New titles that I haven't read - hope they might be good additions to our class library.

Always looking for duplicate copies of popular books.

Books from my "To Read" list.

All of these bookstores give a teacher a nice discount, which is greatly appreciated since I purchase most of the books for my classroom library and class read alouds.  If you ever visit Long Island be sure to shop at these bookstores! Do you have a favorite bookstore?  What books have you purchased recently?