Treasures Abound For Young Readers At The Booth Book Sale

By Jan Howard

The children’s book section at the C.H. Booth Library’s Labor Day Book Sale offers reading enjoyment for young people.

The book sale, which will have over 150,000 books and related items in 70 categories, is scheduled, rain or shine, for the 25th consecutive year from September 2 to September 6 at Bridgeport Hall on the former Fairfield Hills Hospital campus.

The sale features thousands of almost new and better quality children’s books as well as games and puzzles, according to book sale volunteer Denise Kaiser, an 11-year resident of Newtown who has been involved with the book sale for ten years. Two other volunteers who help out with children’s books for the book sale are Paula Pitts, who helps sort and price, and Isabelle Koehler, who appraises first edition books for value and rarity.

Children’s books are divided in categories by age group, Ms Kaiser said.

“The board books for pre-readers will be near the rug area so they can plop themselves down and look at them,” Ms Kaiser said. Golden books and other baby books will also be in that area, as well as games and puzzles.

We have a limited number of pop-up, plastic, and cloth books,” she said.

There are some classic games, such as Stratego, Monopoly, Chutes & Ladders, and Scrabble, as well as many others, she said.

One table will include easy readers, picture books, and easy chapter books for first graders and comic books. There are also some books with cassette tapes and electronic books. “Some of those are in good shape. They will be with the easy-to-read books,” she said.

There are also plenty of dinosaur and animal books, Ms Kaiser noted, as well as non-fiction books in paperback or hard cover, and sets, such as encyclopedias.

“We have separated out books on religions, and religious instruction books and pamphlets,” Ms Kaiser said. Also in separate categories will be hard cover fiction books and hard cover and paperback classics, such as the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, and Babysitter’s Club series.

“We have tons of paperback fiction. We had 2-3,000 this year in June, and a lot came in over the summer, ” Ms Kaiser said.

She believes there are about 10,000 books in the children’s category.

 The Young Adults section is expanded and is no longer included with the children’s books, Ms Kaiser said. This section, which includes fiction and nonfiction, Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University, and Fear Street books, is now in its own area with the adult books.

Two other categories are also in the adult area, she said. Foreign language children’s books will be included in the foreign languages category. “We have minimal Judaica books for children, and they’re with the Judaica books.”

Affordable children’s classics from the 1930s through the 1960s, which are always sentimental favorites for adults, are also offered. “We have a tremendous number of children’s hard cover books from the 1930s and 1940s,” Ms Kaiser said. These children’s collectibles will be found in the rare books room.

“There are series that today’s kids wouldn’t recognize,” Ms Kaiser said. “They are probably more of interest to adults. Some are in really nice shape. The illustrations are so beautiful, and the typeface. They were produced to be a source of joy and pleasure.”

Some of these older books are very fragile, she said.

“There are some wonderful adventure stories,” she said, such as Camp Fire Girls and Boy Scouts. Some of the children’s classics require more mature readers, she noted.

“We get some high quality, interesting books,” Ms Kaiser said. “This means our kids are reading them. It is the mark of a community that buys its children books.”

Ms Kaiser has witnessed various reactions from children during her years with the book sale. “We can have the kid that takes a box of books and wants all of them, or a kid that is overwhelmed,” she said. “We always try to help them, to find out what interests them.

“And we always have the child who asks ‘Do you have the following book?’ and goes on to give the name and the author. They know what they want. They’re the serious shopper. We do our best to find the book for them.”

Some other categories of books in the annual sale are art, cooking, war and military, biographies, gardening, crafts, Christmas, chess, history, flower arranging, mysteries, science fiction, and more, as well as computer software, LPs, games, and puzzles.

The sale hours are September 2, 9 am to 5 pm; September 3, 10 am to 5 pm; September 4, 9 am to 4:30 pm; September 5, 2 to 6 pm; and September 6, 10 am to 4 pm.

Admission of $10 from 9 am to noon and $5 from noon to 5 pm is charged on September 2 only. Tickets go on sale at 7 am. On September 2 and 3, books are sold at the marked price. On September 4, books are sold at half the marked price from 9 am to 2 pm and from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on September 4 and September 5 from 2 to 6 pm, books are $5 per bag. Leftover books are free on September 6 from 10 am to 4 pm, with donations accepted.

Refreshments are available September 2 to 4. All proceeds benefit the C.H. Booth Library.