Our Library Book Shelf, or how I get my kids to try new books regularly

One of the best investments we ever made was at a library sale, when we picked up this forward facing book shelf for $12. We call it our 'library book shelf'. I use it to display a selection of library books and books we already own that I think might interest my children, or that go with the season or topics we will be studying. Seeing bits of the covers is nearly irresistible and they are browsing pages before they know it.

Today I had a quick library trip to look for books. I also brought some books down from our attic boxes. I was looking mainly for books about winter, snow, and wool but I always keep my eye out for books I think will interest someone in my family, so there are a few oddballs here too. I made sure to find at least one poetry book for future poetry tea times. I already had a few books to go with our read aloud Little Women. Want to see the books? Here they are, with links to Amazon where available (I'm an affiliate, so while it doesn't affect your cost at all, I get a small credit on any purchases you make through my link - even if you buy something totally unrelated to the link you click through. My budget thanks you!).

• The Louisa May Alcott Cookbook
• The Little Women Book
• Louisa May's Battle: How the Civil War Led to Little Women
• Little Women: A Playtime Primer
• If you Give a Dog a Donut
• If you Give a Moose a Muffin
• The Valentine Bears
• Snow Moon
• Owl Moon
• Snowflake Bentley
• The Big Snow
• The Bear Report
• One Day On Our Blue Planet in the Antarctic
• Gingerbread Baby
• Warm as Wool
• Charlie Needs a Cloak
• Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story
• Julia's House for Lost Creatures
• Owl Babies
• Snow Globe Family
• Snow
• A Castle Full of Cats
• Winter Poems
• Curious George: Farm to Table
• Dinosaurs in Disguise
• Walking in a Winter Wonderland
• Three Little Dinosaurs
• The Snow Bear
• Trouble with Trolls
• The Hat
• For the Children's Sake
• Fairest
• Stars Above

I set the books out on the shelf from my library trip around dinner time. It didn't take long for people to start browsing books, commenting on old favorites or asking for someone to read new ones. Samuel was especially happy with the dinosaur books. I was thrilled to find these because I've read aloud the ones we have many times in the last few weeks. We started with Three Little Dinosaurs and most of my younger boys enjoyed it. Makayla, my 15 year old, was apparently listening in from another room because when the three little dinosaurs who wanted to fly were introduced to 'Terry Dactyl' she laughed and groaned at the literary wordplay.

Do you ever gather a bin or shelf full of books and put them out to be discovered? What are your favorite winter or dinosaur books?