Our friends like to joke that there are books in every room of our house–and they aren’t far off.
We have floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves in the den, bookcases in the living room, a cookbook rack in the kitchen, 8 packed bookcases in the basement, and bookshelves in each of the kids’ rooms.
We have struggled with not only finding enough room for our books but for also keeping them organized. And then comes the weekly frantic search for the library books that are due. Especially difficult to wrangle are the children’s books. We try to find a balance between keeping them accessible and in-sight but also neatly arranged.
The Guidecraft Universal Book Display does just that.
Traditional shelves only show the spine of the book–hardly a visually attractive element for a young child. Some children’s book spines are also very thin and you cannot tell what each book is without removing it. Even removing the book is difficult. And returning the book to the shelf is still more challenging. We end up with a big sloppy pile unless I just do it myself.
As an educator and a parent, I want to encourage both literacy and independence. Giving my children access to their books, making the books appealing, and providing a way for them to put the books back themselves are a big part of making progress towards those goals.
The back of the shelf also has dowels that allow you to store extra-large books.
I’m not sure how much we will use the extra-large book storage in the home and I am concerned about using it for hard-cover books. In a library that features a lot of soft-cover extra-large books, though, this would be a helpful feature. In the home, however, it makes the display have a wider profile.
Because there is not much storage room in the Book Display, we are using it primarily for our seasonal books. Right now we are finishing up studying apples and will move onto pumpkins and Halloween.
My son loves the ability to pick out books and put them back himself. He immediately filled the shelves and picked one for story time.
If you have the room and want a display for a carefully curated selection of books, the Guidecraft Universal Book Display is a great product.
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WANT IT: Buy the Guidecraft Universal Book Display at Guidecraft ($200) or Amazon.
Check out the giveaway of the Guidecraft Universal Book Display at MommyPR. Please note there is no giveaway on this post on Mamanista. I wrote this review as part of the Guidecraft Educators program.
