As the holidays approach, let the love of literacy stand out with these high contrast books!
I absolutely love books! I know that libraries exist so that books can be borrowed and returned, but I can’t help but buy books for my son, and giving them away when he’s outgrown them, or when we run out of space, is such a hard thing to do. I have recently discovered the joy of buying books on Ebay, and I wanted to pass along a few tips and great book finds to you, especially as we approach the gift giving season.
Buying books on Ebay
If you haven’t used Ebay in awhile, you might be interested to know that it’s not exclusively auctions anymore. People sell many items on Ebay, either personally, or through online shops. For many items like books, Ebay store owners offer special discounts. For the books I’m listing here, I took advantage of a sale where I purchased 3 books and got the 4th free. Here are some tips and tricks to book shopping on Ebay.
- Find a book you like in a retail store? Head over to Ebay to look for it in gently used condition.
- When you find a listing for a book, scroll down to look for the seller’s name and see if they have an online store. Navigate to the store, and search for books in that series.
- Look for stores that offer discounts when you buy more.
- Review the condition of the books that you buy. Often they are in gently used condition and just fine, but sometimes you might need to inquire further about the condition of a book.
- Find stores that offer free shipping. Many of them do, especially when you buy more.
- Keep your audience in mind when buying used books. I will often buy them for my own child or as a treat for the kids in my world, but if I’m needing a true gift, I will look for new copies and might choose not to use Ebay.
My recent Ebay haul
As I was helping to prepare for an early childhood event where I would be speaking with parents about early literacy activities. As I did some retail therapy in Target, I came across a book from Duopress Labs titled Hello, My World. It was on clearance for $5, so I bought it and decided to look for more on Ebay. By the time I was done, I had purchased 7 other black and white books to use with students for just under $30.
Duopress Labs “Hello” Books
The books I found from Duopress Labs are titled:
- Hello, My World
- Hello, Baby Animals
- Hello, Ocean Friends
I believe there are others in this series. I like these books because they have fairly simple pictures and could easily be adapted with tactile outlining or symbols. They are very durable, and although the print is a bit smaller than I’d like, the text is very short and simple, and it is written in a sans serif font. Each page has a different image on it and also a different way to greet the image, (Hello, What’s Up?, Hola, etc…) Using these books to teach the concept of greetings would be a really fun lesson!
Tiger Tales “Hello” Books
I purchased two Tiger Tales books entitled:
Hello Bugs
Hello Animals
This book was a super cool find, and I didn’t realize how cool it was until it actually arrived. When I tried to open the book, I realized it was secured with Velcro. Opening it revealed many panels of common objects including a flower, buttons, a bib, a butterfly, and keys. Another super interesting thing about this book is that one side has black pictures on a white background, and the other side has white images on a black background. These pictures are large and very simply drawn, and because the book unfolds into a long line of images, it could be used to observe tracking, scanning, or contrast preferences.
Two More Finds
Two more books I found are entitled:
- Baby Animals Black and White
- White on Black
The Baby Animals book has slightly more complex images, but it still has a nice black and white contrast inside. There is no text in this book, so it might be fun to have students try and identify the animals and create their own story. White on black is very similar to the book described above with panels. The images are basic outlines of objects. I believe some of the same pictures from the panel book are used here. There is no text in this book.
Hope this inspires you to hop over to Ebay and check out what they have to offer. I plan to adapt these books in different ways to meet the needs of individual students that may include real pictures, textures, braille, and more. I’ll be sure to share the results with you all over time.
Happy Reading!
