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These are some my of my go-to sources for books that I’ve used over the last 33 years. Over the years, I used a lot of my own money to fund books in classroom and department. I had the resources to do this, but most teachers do not. I want to recommend quality sources that are budget friendly. Some of these resources can be easily used with school or district funds based on your district’s purchasing processes and rules.
- Amazon.com is a staple in purchasing these days. I use it for personal and professional purchases; however, I know some prefer using alternative suppliers, especially those who support local and small businesses. In my book reviews, I link to site pages for bookshop.org and libro.fm which support local bookstores when you purchase books or audiobooks.
- Libro.fm — This is a great site if you want an alternative or additional audiobook resource. I do have a monthly subscription to this site in addition to my Audible subscription as part of Amazon Prime. What really sold me on Libro.fm is their monthly Educator ALCs. Each month they have a dozen or more free audiobook downloads for educators. I can find children’s, middle-grade, young adult, fiction, nonfiction, and professional works depending on the month. I typically download several audiobooks each month for free. Use this link to sign up for the free Educator ALCs: https://libro.fm/alc-program. No monthly membership is required to to receive the Educator ALCs.
- Bulkbookstore.com – This site became my go-to for pricing books sets during my last few years teaching in a high school. It is part of part of purchasing co-ops in Texas, which was vital to the purchasing procedure in my district. I found their prices reasonable and service excellent when I used them.
- Firstbook.org — If you teach at a “Title I-eligible school, early childhood program, afterschool program, literacy program, shelter, health clinic, faith-based organization, or any other organization where at least 70 percent of kids served come from low-income families,” this site is for you. First Book’s generous partners provide books at low cost for purchase, access to special funding opportunities, and the Book Bank, which has books by the case available for the cost of shipping only. This was not a site for which I could use a purchase order, but I did keep a close eye on the Book Bank and popular titles to purchase for my classroom library and to use as giveaways in my department. It was easy to stretch $25 to bring in great titles for my colleagues to add to their classrooms.
