Children’s Books Guidelines
At McKay’s, we process between 25,000-35,000 children’s books a month during most of the year, but in the summer that number tends to DOUBLE. Due to the large quantity of children’s books we see, we are more restrictive on those items than other genres of books. Here are some common things that will disqualify a children’s book from acceptance. This list is not exhaustive, but we do hope it helps!
- We encourage you to refrain from submitting items in the condition listed below. In order to expedite your wait time, our team will not process orders where most items are visibly not acceptable
- We do not accept:
- Children’s Books with any stickers on the front, back, or spine, aside from price stickers
- Children’s Books with writing on the outside (pages and/or cover)
- Children’s Books where the dust cover is missing.
- Items with stamps that identify and item as being part of any library or school system, even if discarded
- Items that are sticky, even in spots (generally where labels have been removed)
- Items with visible water damage, mold, insects, staining, or assessed to be in ‘poor condition’.
Here are some ideas of places to take the items that we cannot use:
- Charity thrift stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity
- Call your local library to inquire if they can use any children’s books
- Find your local ‘Free Little Library’ and help stock that: www.freelittlelibrary.org
- Ask your friends, neighbors, or relatives if they need any summer reading
- Recycle any paperbacks that may need to retire: