LARA JO HIGHTOWER/Special to the Free Weekly
Educators of all stripes and affiliations will want to shop the next Bentonville Friends of the Library book sale, says that organization’s membership co-chairman Marianne Losapio. The sale will feature a whopping 25,000 children’s books in a wide range of genres: Little Golden books and board books for the younger set; chapter, series and graphic novels for the older kids. As a special incentive to attend, says Losapio, no child who visits the sale will leave empty handed: The organization plans to allow each child that comes to the sale to pick a book and take it home — for free.
Losapio says the massive book haul came to the Friends of the Library through a single donor.
“A gentleman who buys and sells books by the truckload had been coming into our bookstore and buying books that he thought he could he could resell,” says Losapio. “And during conversation, it arose that he was throwing away children’s books because he wasn’t having much luck selling them online. The lady that’s in charge of the ‘Friends’ bookstore mentioned to him that it would be awesome if he could start collecting those books so that we could sell them in our bookstore.”
Losapio says teams from the organization have been driving to Fayetteville nearly every week to sort the books.
“We have at least 400 boxes of books,” she says.
The sale runs Aug. 5-8, with Aug. 5 set aside as a special shopping day for those affiliated with education — teachers, administrators, librarians or homeschoolers, for example. Losapio says those shoppers will also receive a 25% discount off of the book prices. Most book prices are $1 for hardback books and 50 cents for paperback books, she says.
Funds raised by the Friends of the Bentonville Library book sales help pay for certain programs sponsored by the library, like the summer book program. Losapio says those funds also fund ways to thank library volunteers for their service.
“The library has such an important place in the community,” she says. “Their outreach programs for children and adults are so awesome.”
FAQ
Children’s Book Sale
WHEN — 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Aug. 6-7; 12-5 p.m. Aug. 8
WHERE — Bentonville Public Library, 405 S. Main St., Bentonville
COST — Books priced 50 cents-$1
INFO — bentonvillelibraryfriends.org/semiannual-book-sales/
