Did someone say free children’s books? Well, we just did.
This week marks the Center for Children’s Books winter “Galley Giveaway.” This giveaway includes pre-publication children’s, middle grade, and young adults books. They will be given out first come, first serve starting Wednesday, Jan. 18 between 3-7 p.m. You can find the Center for Children’s Books within The Graduate School of Library and Information Science building at the University of Illinois, 501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign.
Galleys are “generally produced after a manuscript has been typeset but before proofreading, and are used by publicists to send to book reviewers, distributors and book clubs that like to see a copy of the book three or four months before its official publication date,” according to this “galley FAQ.”
If there are any galleys left after Wednesday, the Center will send out an email to let patrons know how many remain for the giveaway Thursday (scheduled for 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.), and will repeat that for Friday as well. Here’s the link to get on the listserv, so you’ll get notifications.
Another date to write down on your calendar is the Center’s 11th annual Children’s Book Sale, which goes from Monday, Feb. 20, through Wednesday, Feb. 22. Sale hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day. Entry is free. The Book Sale is a great opportunity to stock up on new books at very reduced prices, and the sale benefits the Center itself.
There is also a pre-sale on Feb. 19, which costs $20 to attend. Tickets must be reserved by phone (217.244.9331) or email (ccb@illinois.edu); reservations will be taken between Jan. 30 and Feb. 13.
According to the Center, the sale contains thousands of new children’s books for youth ages birth through high school. The titles include fiction and nonfiction; board books, picture books, easy and transitional readers; chapter books, series fiction, novels, activity books and kits; nonfiction series, mass-market paperbacks, and more.
Paperback books are $1 or $2 each, hardcover books are $5 each, and some individual items are priced as marked. All proceeds support the Center for Children’s Books and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.
The Center is a unit of the University of Illinois Graduate School for Library and Information Science. It houses a non-circulating collection of recent and historically significant trade books for youth, birth through high school. The CCB also collects reference books on the history and criticism of literature for youth, literature-based library and classroom programming, and storytelling. Although the collection is non-circulating, it is available for examination by scholars, teachers, librarians, students, and the public.