The set books are looking a bit lonely on the newly-cleared shelf at the moment.
These are old copies, and unfortunately they just won’t do. Others are available on-line (Little Women, Treasure Island, Peter Rabbit) but these won’t do either. I need to buy all the course-required versions I guess so that students and I have the same text, same page numbering, same introductions.
I’ve ordered some and will order the rest in a later batch. Apart from having to part with some money, there are lots of feel-good factors about buying new books, aren’t there? Some people are able to support their local / independent bookshops. If you are ordering from Amazon you could consider clicking there via the University’s Online Bookstore which gives a small percentage of purchase money back to the fundraising charity, the OU Foundation .
And then there’s the childlike pleasure of opening a parcel, and opening up those fresh clean pages. Even if you know what’s in the parcel, even if you’ve read the books before, it’s still a gift.
If I were going to buy a children’s book for someone else right now, I think I’d go for Dogs by Emily Gravett. What would be top of your list?
