Now I am feeling guilty that I didn't buy my kids more from the Scholastic books catalogues.
I usually only allowed my children to pick once book each but some months I couldn't even afford that. This isn't to say that my children didn't have plenty of books but the majority of them were bought secondhand or at book sales. Each year I would take my children to the book sale at the main library. Children's books were about 50c and I would give my children $5 each to spend.
Don't feel guilty. Used book stores are another VERY fond memory of growing up--cost effective, for starters, AND you find all kinds of rare jewels that just aren't in print anymore. And of course there's that special old-book smell that you just don't get anywhere else, one that I learned to love very early in life.
I still have my very first adult-level evolution book that I asked my parents for in 1st grade. They were thrilled to let me have it given the level it meant I could read at! Some of the information is outdated now that new discoveries have been made, but some of the science in it really had a lot of impact even on the fanfic writing I do to this day. (I didn't just pull the term "therapsid" for Cardassians out of thin air...
) It came from a used book store and had the most wonderful, detailed illustrations of every creature.This is it. Too bad you can't see the illustrations inside, because they are pure awesome.
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Story-Human-Evolution/dp/0688094767
