Shopping spree!

Indigo Books in Saskatoon is supplying books for the library portion of Kolbjorn's personal backyard Clubhouse Library. They had gone through Kol's 16 page long Amazon wish list and gathered all of the books that they had in stock, which amounted to about 4 full boxes. Since there was still room in the book budget, Kol got to go into the store in person and choose more books. He had a BLAST! (emphasis added at Kol's request) He loved that we said yes to almost any book he asked for. He even chose a few books just for his sisters. We spent close to 2 hours browsing through the store. The staff was great.

Now we have 7 boxes of books sitting in our front entry, waiting to be placed in the clubhouse when it comes. We've told Kol that he has to wait to read the books until they are actually on the shelves in the clubhouse. He's chomping at the bit to start reading - but we don't really want him to have finished reading everything before the clubhouse actually arrives. Believe it or not, that is a very real possibility, considering how many times the clubhouse has been delayed, and how fast Kol reads.

Quote from Kol: "I couldn't read any of the books in most of the boxes anyway, because the top box is too hard to move. It's too full of books."

We already have several boxes of books that will be moved into the clubhouse when it arrives - books from the shelves in Kol's room, and maybe some of the books the girls have been collecting, too. Kirk is busy scheming about cataloging software that we can use to keep track of what we have. Here's a list of what has been purchased for the library up to now.

We're pretty impressed with the variety of books Kol has gotten so far, and with the books he chose on his original wish list. We'll be working on filling in the gaps as time goes by. Kirk and I have hesitated posting any links to the wish list, but I finally decided to just go ahead and do it now. That way, those of you who don't know Kol that well can get an idea of what he's like by seeing what kind of books he's interested in. And I have to admit I'm pretty proud of the collection of books we managed to put together. Kol created the list almost completely by himself; he suggested an author, a series or a topic, I would find books that fit his criteria and Kol would pick out the books he wanted from those lists - often reading previews or reviews of those books before making a decision. We borrowed dozens of library books, giving Kol a chance to figure out which authors, series, and genres he liked. I admit that I did add a few books (maybe 20 - 30?) that I thought he'd enjoy, (thinking skills, classics, Canadian books) and that I wanted him to be exposed to. He has books about science, chess, knitting, cooking, math, Lego, Star Wars, Lego Star Wars, mythology, history and music. He has Christian books, mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, reference books, children's books, humour, graphic novels, historical fiction, classic literature, how-to books, devotionals, and even a textbook or two. The English teacher in me is very impressed. Have I mentioned that I love this kid? I do.