Buying and Collecting Old Children's Books

This lens will give you insight into the common, What, Why, How, Where, of collecting Children's Books.

WHAT, to collect in the category of Children's Books is very wide ranging. Some ideas may be a certain time period such as is popular now the 1950's to 70's. It could possibly be Pre world War 2 or that time between the wars, 1920's and 30's [Great Illustrations]. Another good time era is pre WW1 and into the 1800's. there is still a lot of 1800's children's books out there at reasonable cost.
You could collect by author, such as, L. Frank Baum, Thornton Burgess, or Lewis Carroll. There was so many great authors of Children's books. It will be had to limit to a few favorites.
You can collect illustrators. I can tell you some of the best illustrators did children's books. In my opinion the illustrations from the 1910's through 1950's are the tops. Some illustrators may include Johnny Gruelle, Lois Lenski or Beatrix Potter or many others.
You can collect types of children's books such as Golden Books or Tell-A-Tale or Wonder or Elf. There are a number of series books that can make a nice collection, Such as Automobile Girls, Billy Whiskers or bobbsey Twins. You could collect Big Little Books or Little Big Books. Then there are the Early School Readers with great illustrations and a learning story. there are Non Fiction HOW To Books. there are Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes and Mother Goose and Fables. As you can see the possibilities are near endless.
So the real answer to what to collect is to collect what you like, and where your interest lies. You most likely now know what that is, So go for it.

WHY, Do you want to collect Children's Books? We talked about Authors, Illustrators and such but there is more. Children's books are like Music of our earlier childhood, The Illustrations and stories will take you back to thoughts of your childhood and a simpler time and place, Its call nostalgia and it is an important ingredient for the well being of our sprits. Children's books provide us with a simple snap shot of what our society was like at a certain time period. The changes are very evident in a children's book. A lot of early children's books were expected to teach young people a grown up lesson that they would pick up in the background. I like the Fairy Tales and Fables that taught in Parables lessons that are still important but today not always taught. WHY is up to you, but children's books are a part of our past society's learning. The Children's Books are important to preserve as a innocent statement of those earlier times. I almost forgot the simplest reason, Collecting Children's books is enjoyable and easy to do.

HOW, Is largely up to you, but there are some pointers. The number one is buy what you like, do not buy for primarily any other reason. Second, Be critical of condition of book, buy the best condition you can afford. An rare desirable book could be the exception or You could buy a fill in to complete a set until a better copy can be obtained. Third, Try to focus, limit your collecting categories, children's books is to big to collect anything and everything. Fourth, be persistent you may have to turn over a lot of stones to find what are looking for. Five, Enjoy the hunt it is the quest and finding that treasure that leads to satisfaction.

WHERE, To find children's Books is simple, To find specific books will be more challenging. Start at you areas Estate and garage sales. This is the best if you are into 1950's to the present books. You can go to live auctions and search, some of my best finds are at auctions that do list as selling children's books. some of the older books may be found this way. You can use wanted classified ads, which can be expensive but may yield results if you have a wide ranging collecting field. You can check out antique and collectible malls. At the mall you can be more precise in your purchases and conditions. Don't forget about resale shops, again for mostly new books. Then you also have the immense possibilities of the internet. What a rich resource for collecting

This is where I need to plug my internet site,

http://buyoldchildrensbooks.com/

I try to keep listed and pictured at this time 300 children's books in different categories. I hope the site is easy to use and purchase from. I add new books as I have access to them. You will also find book repair supplies on the site along with hints on making repairs.
I invite you to take a look and leave a message here or there with your thoughts of the site.

I hope you have enjoyed my commentary and pointers on collecting Children's Books