Board books from bookcloseouts.com

In my opinion, board books make wonderful stocking stuffers for infants and toddlers, because the earlier you foster a love of reading in your child, the easier and more pleasurable they will find school in the long run. Many board books are also the right size for stockings, they're a lot less expensive than larger picture books, and they're sturdy and can stand up to a bit of chewing. Some of them come in non-standard shapes, like a triangle or the silhouette of a cat, or touch-and-feel textures. The possibilities are endless!

Most new board books from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Borders cost between $4.99 and $7.99. But wait.... there's a better way!

Are you familiar with www.bookcloseouts.com? If not, you're in for a real treat. This is an online seller of bargain or "remaindered" books that have been sent from bookstores back to the publishers, who then turn around and sell them to places just like bookcloseouts.com. The only flaw you're likely to see on any of these books is a small black marker stripe on the top or bottom edge of the pages, or through the price on the back of the book. But it's worth it, because board books are as low as $1 to $3. Here are a few quick steps to find them:

• Go to www.bookcloseouts.com
  
• Along the left-hand column, click where it says "Children - Fiction"
  
• Along the left-hand column, under the heading "By Format", click on "Board Books"
  
• Along the left-hand column, under the heading "By Price", click on "$1.00 to $3.00"

As of this writing, there were 177 different board books listed for between $1.00 and $3.00. The best part is, many of them are holiday-related: Christmas, Easter, Halloween, even Thanksgiving! And these are not junky little books that nobody has ever heard of -- just look at Baby Snoopy Santa for $2.99, or Biscuit is Thankful for $2.49, or the shaped die-cut Bunny's Egg Hunt (pictured below) for $2.49. Personally, if I had little ones, my strategy would be to stock up in January on board books for all of the holidays coming up for the year, starting with Valentine's Day. There are also lots of non-holiday books on counting, letters, opposites, colors, and shapes. There are even lots of "tie-in" board books to animated movies like Toy Story and Happy Feet.

If you don't feel like scrolling through all 177 books listed, you can refine your search by entering a word ("valentine", "colors", etc.) in the "Search within results" box. If you do so, however, you'll need to re-click on "board books" under format when you get your results list, as it seems to revert to all formats for some reason.

Regarding shipping, bookcloseouts.com charges $1 handling for the overall order, plus a small per-item fee. I put together a sample order of five board books totaling $13.95, and the system calculated a shipping of $3.25 for standard shipping plus the $1.00 handling fee, for a total of $18.20. That comes out to an average price of $3.64 per board book -- far better than the $4.99-$7.99 you'll see in regular bookstores, to which you'll have to add tax for physical stores or shipping for online retailers. I say it's a pretty good deal.

What: Board books from bookcloseouts.com
Where: www.bookcloseouts.com
How much (as of today's post): average of $3.64 per book including shipping