We've been reading The Birchbark House.

[conuly]

What we're reading next, I have no clue. I'm welcoming suggestions! Something a little lighter where nobody dies of smallpox. (That's the part we just finished, with her little brother dying of smallpox. I didn't tell the nieces, but things don't cheer up until the end of the next chapter either.) I mean, this is a great book, don't get me wrong, but I like to alternate in all respects. Maybe we can read The Exiles or, I don't know, Dancing Shoes or something. (Huh. Where *is* my copy of Dancing Shoes?)

Question: What can I do with paperback books to make the cover last longer? Or to preserve covers that already show signs of wear and tear?

Also, I'm going to have to start another running list of chapter books to purchase. If anybody wants to contribute, let me know. I also need advice (and lots of it!) on graphic novels. For the love of god, do I ever!

Comments

[kyrielle]

Our local library laminates the covers - I wonder if using the cold laminate (sticky type) that you can buy would work or not.

Sadly, while there are many books I love, I really have no sense of what is suitable when. Other than, you know, the board book and barely-post-board-book set, that being where mine is at this point.

[conuly]

Sandra Boynton rocks?

[kyrielle]

Yep. Bizarrely, he loves Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, which should still be out of his level. But I try very hard to avoid reading him Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

Largely because I'm really lousy at improv, and the pictures make no sense after he gleefully tells the pigeon that he can drive the bus the first time he asks. Which is, oh, about 90% of the time.

[conuly]

YOU SHARE MY PAIN!

[dragonwolf]

The library I used to work at used the cold laminate style for their paperbacks. It works quite well, but can be a pain in the ass to put on right.

[beezelbubbles.livejournal.com]

For care of books, I'd check a library supply site and see what they have to offer. Also maybe check with your librarians to see if they have tips. When I worked in my university's library, I put the plastic covers on the dust jackets, and did some light spine repairs, but never on any paperbacks. There is some neat book care stuff out there.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

My library used this sort of thing for paperbacks:
http://www.loveyourbook.co.uk/height-166mm-max-length-265mm.html?source=googleps
ie, a plastic cover which slips over a paperback cover in the same way a dustjacket slips over a hardback book cover. They're reusable (unless you buy the sort which do stick one flap to the cover), and I had one from a book I got in a library book sale which I used to swap round to the book I was reading at the time. If you want something more permanent and don't mind not being able to take it off, my library also stuck sticky-backed plastic directly to the cover of some books instead, though of course you have to be careful that you stick it down neatly which can be tricky.

Best thing to do, of course, is make sure no-one's doing things like bending the cover back on itself, etc. When I was younger I refused to lend my books to my younger sister because I'd get them back with the spine and cover in awful condition, and the ones only I had read, you usually couldn't tell they'd been read at all. I was a bit particular about my books.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Might I reccomend DAVID AND THE PHOENIX by Edward Ormondroyd to read to/with the girls? Project Gutenberg has it, so it'd be easy to see if it's appropriate before hunting down a hardcopy.

[conuly]

I'll definitely check it out!

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend the Moomin valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin) stories by Tove Jansson. Very entertaining and sweet. Pettson och Findus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pettson_and_Findus) by Sven Nordqvist are also brilliant, but I don't know how easy they are to come by over where you are.

[conuly]

I don't like the Moomin books much. *shrugs*

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I don't think I've met many people who don't. Although you would have to read them in English, and translations are tricky, both on a word level and on a cultural level. I've never cared much for the comics though, they were not to my taste.

[conuly]

Yes, it's possible that the translations I've read were bad ones. I don't dislike them, they're just not to my taste.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Or they don't appeal to you because the cultural context does not translate.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Borrowers books by Mary Norton yet? Or the Redwall books by Brian Jaques? Another book my daughter adored at that age was Self-Portrait With Wings, the author of which I don't recall.

I can't say enough good things about Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini. My daughter essentially learned to read from them, because we read them so often. Awesome story, awesome art, awesome family/community values - suggest you read them first yourself, though, because there is a fair amount of violence, though far less than a lot of Saturday-morning cartoons. It's not gratuitous violence, though - unlike, say, Star Wars, where the beautiful princess from the peaceful planet burns down dozens of men without turning a hair - nor is violence ever presented as a good solution, even when it's the only solution.

[conuly]

1. Not with the girls
2. Tiny margins, tiny print? I can never find an edition of any of them that doesn't give me eyestrain.
3. That makes you the third person I ever heard of hearing of that book. I had to go to whatwasthatbook to remember the name of that one!