Collector's Corner

We have brought together information and resources for collectors on these pages, but you might also want to look through the Reader's Corner.

Author's Page [1] Every so often a short article with biography will appear on the Author's page, featuring a children's author, illustrator or genre. Check back as our collection of biographies steadily increases; all of the bios will be archived online and accessible from this page. Be sure to read the Comments from fans of these authors and please add some yourself!

Collecting Children's Books [2]. A long article which answers questions people have asked me about collecting children's books

• Designing a collection.
• Finding Books
• Judging condition
• Ascertaining edition
• Caring for books
• Managing your collection
• Passing your books along

Links for Collectors [3] Rather than including every possible link, we grouped essential links in several categories to get you started:

• Four Sites to Get You Started
• Library Collections of Rare Children's Books
• Bookstores and Book Fairs
• Recommended Journals Online
• Blogs and personal websites
• Miscellaneous Resources
• Caring for books: Bookbinders and Sources of Jackets
• Recommended Booksearchers

and Steve Trussel's Books and Book Collecting for links to everything else! 

Books for Collectors [4]
This begins with a nice new section, take a look!
A Beginning Children's Book Reference Library for under $25.00 +Shipping     
               
Following this is a fairly disorganized list of the major reference books we keep at hand. At some point we will upload our large collection of out of print reference on this site and improve this section.

JUST FINISHED! New Reference Available [5]

Here is a collection of newer reference, most in print, most available from Amazon, featuring the only (I think) collection of new children's literature bibliographies on the net. A few of these are recently out of print and in our opinion, essential. We have used most of these books repeatedly.

 We are Amazon Associates, so you may click through to Amazon directly from this page, or go to our review page and then to Amazon to order.  Especially in the case of the bibliographies, read the review page first, as we own these books and have given you more detail.

If the book is available directly from an independent publisher or author, we gave that source instead. (We have no business arrangements with them, but they are all very well known). Please ask the author if you would like an autographed copy. If the Amazon price on an out of print book is absurd, we included the link to abebooks.com, which is where we would always look first.

If the book is bound and printed in America or Europe, we noted that fact. We are saddened to see the many books printed in Asia, especially the illustrated bibliographies, which all have a similar look. So many jobs lost! Personally I would be happy to pay another $5 for a local job, or another $10 for a lovely Italian printing. You will see this sign on some of our new books:

But anyway.... buying from Amazon. We assume you are buying for a working library only. If you want to be sure to get a collectible copy as regards condition, edition and packing, buy from an independent bookseller and spend the extra dollars.

• We do not guarantee Amazon's descriptions. At All. Always check the edition and binding of the book you are linked to. Aiming for a particular printing is probably hopeless.
• Also, you will have better luck with the shipping of a large heavy book if you purchase a paperback of a different size and ask to have both books shipped together. That way you will get your books packed (loosely, I'm afraid)  in a box and avoid the wrap-around mailer, which, since they don't use padding, can destroy the corners of a book. We do not guarantee Amazon's packing.

A completely unsolicited recommendation:

Amazon has to have figured this out so they break even on their total shipping costs, but if you buy lots of books, as we do, you will save money over the year with Amazon Prime.