Does anyone know of companies that you can buy children's books in bulk at a very reasonable price or that does donations of books? Funds are limited so we are really looking for a good deal. We need about 400 books.

We are holding a family night during our reading month and would like to pass out a book to every student the night of the event.

Thank you!

If your school does a book fair with Scholastic, the librarian should have a special catalog from them where you can order books in bulk. Last year at the end of our book fair we ordered a bunch from there, and many were available at somewhere around $1 each.

1) Bookcloseouts.com can be a good source. Their everyday prices are really good, but selection can be limited as it's a clearance warehouse. Be sure to search the web for coupsons first. They always seem to have ones like $5 of $35 order. Right, now the coupons don't seem to be quite as great as usual, but I think you'll still find it to be a bargain shopping site.

2) Depending on the economic profile of your school, you might be able to take advantage of the First Book program.

3) Be sure to check with your teachers. They may be aware of free/low cost resources and programs.

4) I've heard a lot about Scholastic Book warehouse sales when this question was posed before, but I've never been in that role so don't have any info.

Good luck!

We sponsor a book giveaway for 700+ students every month during Michigan's Reading Month each March. The first two years, we tried to do new, inexpensive books and it was still costing us a grand. We had a hard time finding good chapter books for the older kids, too.
We decided to try gently loved books and the response was great. The kids don't care if someone owned the book before as long as there is no writing, dog eared pages and the cover is in good shape.
I buy books at our local Goodwill store and scour rummage sales all summer. We have a tall and deep shelf at school where I store the boxes. I add to it all year long so come March I have about 1000+ books in it. I try to sort to grade levels as I put them in the boxes.

Not sure if this would be an idea that would work. In the past we hav a book swap. Each student attending brings in a gently used book they don't want anymore and another student who does the same can pick a different one out. This works out really well for everyone low cost to pto, kids get a book and parents don't have to pay either just bring in a book.
One note too is that we usually end up with some families bringing in way more than they want back so we end up will alot of nice books to use for the library, classrooms etc.
The teachers do sort them out on tables by grade level somewhat to make it easier for the kids to pick one out.

Just a thought