4 Ways to Get FREE & Low-Cost Books for Your Family

Are you wanting to get your kids more involved in reading? Want a bigger at home library? Does your family love to read? Keep reading!

We have been reading to our kids since they were babies. It’s a lot easier to encourage and foster a love of reading with a good library. But books can be expensive and creating an at home children’s library from scratch is costly.

I wanted to share some affordable ways we have grown our library at home and the places to find books. Here are four ways to get free and low cost books for your family.

#1 Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: FREE books for each child in your home (from birth - 5yrs old).

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a FREE gifted service for children to have access to books and help them develop & foster a love of reading.

Each child in your family has the opportunity to receive a FREE book, every month, from birth until age 5.

All you have to do is see if it’s available in your area. If it is SIGN UP!

Both my children have been through the program. My daughter is still enrolled and she has loved getting her own mail and a new story every month.

See if it’s in your area HERE

#2 Local Library

Richland County Public Library: the library with the best kids section!

As always, the Library is your best resource for FREE books. We have visited all the libraries in our area and know which ones have the best kid crnters.

Stay there, hang out, read, play games, attend a class and go on your way. Or take some new reads home if you have a library card for that branch.

It’s FREE entertainment. The library is one of my favorite indoor activities for kids any season, any time.

#3 Library Apps

Most people know this, but if you don’t, there are apps where you can borrow ebooks & audiobooks right from your phone/tablet as long as you have a library card. And it’s completely FREE.

This CHANGED MY LIFE. I love to read, but I am so engrossed in my books I forget everything in my home. I ignore everyone and get nothing done. It’s not healthy or fair to them.

Audiobooks give me the opportunity to still “read” and get my “story fix” without abandoning all my responsibilities. So I mainly use these apps for myself & audiobooks.

When I do use it for my kids, it’s because we travel a lot and mine go through books so fast, we can’t always make it to the library to pick out books or want to tote tons of books around with us while traveling. Apps make borrowing books easy & convenient.

Libby App

Libby Library App: borrow and hold ebooks & audiobooks for FREE with a library card.

Love the Libby library app because although there is a set amount of books you can borrow, they have “holds” on top of your borrows and all you have to do is return a book to get a new one.

Our library lets us borrow 10 ebooks & have 20 holds at a time. When you’ve finished reading a book, just return it and you get that spot back.

Once a book is available to borrow from your “holds” you can either borrow it or wait to deliver it until you’re ready to read it (this helps you not lose your spot in line). Genius!

For the kids, I’ll tag the childrens books we want to read and just borrow them when they’re ready for another book. We always have something new to read but don’t have to go anywhere to get it, worry about returning anything or a book getting lost.

Hoopla

What I love about the Hoopla library app is that it usually has newer and better titles. It also will have audiobooks where Libby will only have the e-book.

You also don’t have to “hold” books because they’re always available.

The only catch is, borrows are based on your library and they are per month. So, I get 6 borrows per month but once they run out, that’s it. And they don’t roll over to the next month.

I don’t use Hoopla for my kids books because of the limited borrows, just for my personal reading.

#4 Secondhand Books

Thrift Stores

Goodwill has Children’s books for $.50-$1

Boutique/Small local thrift stores usually have books for $.50-$3 or bundle them.

Once Upon a Child is a kid’s consignment store. They should have a good selection of children’s books in good-new condition. They’ll range from $.50-$5.50

thriftbooks

There are occasions when I want to have a favorite children’s book, seasonal kids books or a book for gift giving. But I don’t want to pay full retail price.

That’s where shopping books secondhand online at thriftbooks comes in. They have different “conditions” which affect the price.

I prefer to buy children’s books in “good” condition over “acceptable” when I can because it’s usually only a $.20 difference and they look fine to me. We’re not picky!

And shipping is free when you spend $10. I always spend at least $10.

Plus, Thriftbooks has an affiliate program for everyone in their rewards program. When you refer a friend to sign up for ReadingRewards and they spend $30, you BOTH get a FREE book credit!

SecondSale

SecondSale is similar to thriftbooks. You can find specific books for affordable prices.

I go between the two to find the exact books I’m looking for and choose whichever one has the best price or condition. FREE shipping on orders over $10.

They also have a buying program where you can sell your books for cash.

I hope this post was helpful for you to find affordable children’s books and books for your family library.

We love to read and have enjoyed participating in reading programs at the Library and through school where they can earn prizes. Just another fun way to encourage a love of reading any give your kids incentives to read.