We’ve been reading books about fall, all within and in between the schooling themes we’ve done. This time of year, I just can’t get enough (and instill enough) of the good things about autumn, and so we keep a book pile of fall-themed books within reach at all times.

Here are a few of our favorites:

- Autumn’s First Leaf – A cute story about three leaves who are good friends, and the changes they notice in each other’s color as the seasons change.

- Apples, Apples, Apples – A rabbit family goes apple picking, each family member having a special use for the apples they harvest. Cute story — recipe and craft idea at the end!

- The Silly Scarecrow (Clifford’s Puppy Days) – Who doesn’t love Clifford? Clifford overcomes a fear in this tale.

- Mouse’s First Fall – A fun book about playing in the leaves. Beautiful pictures!

- What Makes the Seasons? – This book goes throughout the entire year, telling and showing explicitly well how one season gradually changes to another.

Finding theme-adhering books isn’t always easy. Here are some of the ways I go about it:

- The local library! This is such an underused resource in most communities. Even before we had children, I got our tax money’s worth from our local libraries. (We used to live in a capital city with over seven branches within 20 miles of our house! Wow! Imagine if I had that now.)

- Friends and family. I am blessed to have a mother-in-law who taught kindergarten for over 15 years. She kept many of her books, and when I have a theme coming up, she loads us up.

- Amazon. There are so many, many ways to search, cross-search, and seek out like-minded recommendations on Amazon.com. And if it’s just for reading (not for a gift), you can’t go wrong with their “Used & New” options — you can get a book sent to you for less than $5 sometimes, including shipping.

- Used book sales. Our library runs these occasionally — but local literary guilds often have them once or twice a year. These are brimming with good (and often out-of-print) editions of famed children’s books.

- Yard sales. I have to admit, I used to be a yard sale queen — I was out sale-ing 3 out of 4 Saturdays a month. I also must admit that our weekends have grown increasingly busy lately, and because of that, I have only been able to scout yard sales twice since January. I have hope that I can get to one again soon, though. There’s just something electric about it, the feeling you get when you have a complete armload of great books in great shape, oftentimes for 25-cents a pop.

- Thrift stores. I don’t go to thrift stores much, either. In fact, maybe once a year — and that’s usually only to donate stuff. It’s a pity, really. In our previous town, I’d scour them monthly for vintage books and LPs — my vintage Christmas LP collection is made up of 3/4ths thrift store finds. I also picked up (again, before kids) a few vintage children’s literature volumes to keep for later. It’s a shame I stopped. I hear tons of other moms telling of all the great books bought this way. I need to jump on that bandwagon, don’t I?

- Scholastic. I wrote a post about this great company a couple of weeks back. A great way to get theme-based titles sent to your mailbox, hand-picked and displayed for your perusal in their monthly catalogs.

- Ebay. Ebay is best reserved for hard-to-find, vintage, out-of-print, or large lots of books. I currently have my saved searches to email me with all “Little Golden Books” sold in large lots (I have some crafty notions in my head). You name it, you can find it here. Even those long-lost titles from your childhood that you wish you could pass down (I squeal every time I remember one or spot one hiding in the background in one of my parent’s photo albums).

Happy reading!