10 Ways to Get Children's Books Inexpensively (or Free!)

7 Shares

Voracious readers are definitely a good thing…but figuring out how to keep up with them without breaking the bank can be seriously challenging! Thankfully, we’ve been able to find ways to collect dozens of affordable books – that are not junk! – often for just a dollar or two each. Here are my 10 favorite ways to get children’s books inexpensively.

Pin This Post for Later!

pinterest pin with a picture of a stack of books and a girl reading on a couch

Why Good Quality Books Matter

None of my kids can read yet, so we spend a lot of time each day reading aloud together (which will hopefully continue even when they can read!).

As I’ve fed my young readers great quality books over the years, I’ve seen a few amazing things happen…

Their imaginations have exploded. One day they’re Henry, Jesse, Violet, and Benny from the Boxcar Children. The next they’re Mary, Laura, and Carrie surviving on the prairie. Often they’re piling into their swing set “ark” as Noah’s family because the flood is coming.
Their vocabularies amaze me! The things they say! They are listening way more than we know. Commonly we have to ask, “HOW did you learn that word/saying/phrase?!” (And THIS is a big reason we have to be so careful about what our kids read and hear! They’re always listening! Choose wholesome, great books!) Here’s a list of my 50 favorite wholesome children’s books.
We can always refocus. We have regular times in the day that are set aside for reading, but if ever the day is feeling a little chaotic and I need to bring everyone back into focus, or the kids need some attention, or we need to fill a few minutes… grab a book! Reading great books has instilled in them a love for reading, and they’ll almost never turn down a book with Mom or Dad.

One more reason why I aim for good quality books is for myself! I want to want to read to my children, and for some reason, mind-numbing books just don’t put me in the mood to sit down and snuggle up with a stack of words. Haha!

For all of us, I want books filled with great ideas, beautiful pictures or drawings, and wholesome thoughts. Whether we’re sitting down for some quick board books or picture books or choosing our next chapter book for the week ahead, I’ve tried hard to fill our home with plenty of books that are interesting, beautiful, and well written.

back of girl's head reading book on couch

10 Ways to Find Quality Children’s Books Inexpensively – Cheap or Free!

Keeping lots of books around to read on a daily basis not only instills a love of reading, but it also provides a great way to spend quality time with your kids. In the past 5 years since my oldest was born, we’ve easily collected 200 children’s books by only spending a few dollars per month (on average).

Here’s the list of ways we’ve found cheap books (that are still good quality!) and built our collection.

Thrift stores
Children’s clothing stores
ThriftBooks.com
Used on Amazon
Used bookstores
Library sale shelf (or library sales)
Garage sales (look for children’s garage sales)
Little free libraries
Ask for books as birthday gifts
Facebook Marketplace

1. Thrift stores

Good thrift stores are probably the #1 place I’ve found most of our books. The thrift stores that have a children’s section usually have tons of cheap children’s books! You do have to sift through them a bit, but a lot of times I can find a stack of books for 50¢ – $1.00 each (or even better on sale days!).

shelves of books at volunteers of america thrift store

Our favorite thrift store has the book section right next to the toy aisle, so I let the kids play at the end of the trip with I sort through books. (Here are some more tricks I use to thrift with my kids and actually enjoy it!)

I’ll be honest, though, when I have four little kids in the thrift store, I don’t have time to read through every page, but I don’t worry about it too much. If we come upon something weird in one of the books later, I’ll just get rid of it. The dollar it cost me is well worth it to get a whole stack of cheap books!

(And if you have voracious little artists like I do, thrift stores can be a great place to find coloring and activity books, too!)

2. Children’s clothing stores

I find children’s consignment stores to be another one of the best places to find affordable options for children’s books! In my experience, these stores tend to have higher-quality items than most thrift stores. This means that the prices might be a bit higher, but it’s also a bit easier to sift through since you don’t have to sort through books with ripped pages and such.

Our local children’s consignment store (Once Upon a Child) sells books for $2.50. They have a pretty huge selection of everything from picture books to chapter books for older children. Definitely a great option that’s worth checking out if you have a store like this near you!

(In fact, we thrift most of our kids items from stores like this one and regular thrift stores, too!)

3. ThriftBooks.com

If you’re looking for a specific book, Thriftbooks can be a really good option. They have some of the best deals on cheap kids’ books, and they offer free shipping if you spend over $15. When it comes to online sites for buying books, this is usually my go to!

4. Used on Amazon

Along with ThriftBooks.com, looking at used books on Amazon is the other place I always check if I’m trying to find a specific book. Just search the book you’re looking for, go to the listing, and then look at the new and used options from other sellers on the right side. Just be aware that you often have to pay $3.99 for shipping, even if you have Prime.

Even with shipping, though, I’ve found that I can usually get the books I’m looking for at great prices using this feature!

5. Used book stores

If you have a used book store near you, this is another great place to check for discount children’s books! And even regular book stores – although they’re becoming less common altogether – often have “used” sections where you can find a variety of books for fair prices.

6. Library sale shelf (or library book sales)

A lot of public libraries have a “for sale” shelf where they sell used books for a good price – often for just a dollar or two. If you haven’t already, it may be worth checking your local library for this option!

stack of thin children's books on a table

I personally haven’t taken advantage of any library book sales, but those could be another option for finding good books on sale for cheap.

7. Garage sales

We’ve found some of our best books at garage sales! At this point, garage sailing means loading and unloading 4 kids (all in car seats!), so I usually only stop at a sale if it looks promising and has kid stuff (since that is usually what we need!). Look for those kid garage sales! If you find a family that has similarly-aged children or similar interests/values, you may be able to stock up on a whole pile of books for a really low price.

Garage sales aren’t always the most organized, as we know, especially if there’s a lot of stuff there, so don’t be afraid to dig through those book bins!

8. Little free libraries

Little free libraries are a great place to get new books for FREE! If you haven’t seen them before, these are usually a small cabinet on a post that houses a handful of books that are up for trade. Take a book, leave a book!

They’re often in public places or in people’s front yards. Understandably, many of them house mostly adult books. But if you can find one in an area that’s geared toward children (such as a park), you may find a lot of kids books! Each time we go to our local park, we like to bring a couple of books that we don’t read much anymore and trade them for a couple of new, free books.

9. Ask for books as birthday gifts

We had great success with this method at our girls’ birthday party this year! Because our girls were born in the same month (on different years), we usually celebrate with one big family birthday party for them. But it can be overwhelming to receive gifts from multiple sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles, especially for two kids at once! (In our house, I find that minimizing is a necessity to keep things from becoming chaotic!)

This year, we kindly asked that only grandparents give them gifts, and others could bring a book if they wanted. It was SO much fun to receive a stack of books between the two of them! We had lots of great reading times together from this stack, and we didn’t end up with a whole bunch of toys that we didn’t really need, anyway. 🙂

girl laying on the ground with head on pillow reading book

(Actually, my siblings and I agreed a few years ago that giving books was our favorite way to celebrate nieces and nephews on their birthdays! It keeps things simple and keeps us from having to buy dozens of gifts for each other every year. Giving a favorite book with a note in the cover (adding names and the year, of course!) makes an absolutely great gift!)

10. Facebook Marketplace

Another great resource for finding great deals on books is Facebook Marketplace! This can be an especially good option if you’re looking for specific collections/book sets, books for specific age groups, or popular books.

But then again, we put Marketplace to good use for all sorts of items we need to buy! We have saved THOUSANDS by using Marketplace for everything from furniture and vehicles to smaller items.

Check out our top blog posts about how we use Facebook Marketplace.

Other Places to Try

Okay, I can’t limit it to just 10! Here are a few more places that I’ve either used myself or heard great things about from fellow moms or book lovers.