Military And Children's Books Break Ground For Series of Sales

Chuck Pribbernow, a volunteer at the Bentonville Public Library, sorts books on Wednesday Feb. 24 2021 at Friends Book Store inside the library. Bentonville residents will vote April 13 on an extension of the city's 1% sales tax. 
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Chuck Pribbernow, a volunteer at the Bentonville Public Library, sorts books on Wednesday Feb. 24 2021 at Friends Book Store inside the library. Bentonville residents will vote April 13 on an extension of the city's 1% sales tax. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)

The Bentonville Friends of the Library will host a used book sale from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday on the library's veranda. The organization's membership co-chairman, Marianne Losapio, says the sale will feature children's books as well as military history books.

"That probably seems like a weird combination, but we have a lot of good books in both of those genres," explains Losapio. "One of the American Legions in the area were moving their headquarters and were getting rid of a lot of their books, and we got to be the people they gave it to."

Losapio says that, pre-covid, the organization would host two sales per year inside the library -- one in October and one in April. Pandemic precautions have moved the sales outside, which means fewer books can be displayed and sold. One way the organization is solving that problem is by planning several spring sales. A May 1 sale will feature fiction titles and, on June 5, Losapio says a wide variety of genres will be sold.

The funds raised by such sales are important to the Bentonville Public Library, says Losapio, and have traditionally been used for events like the summer reading program and the Lit Festival. Losapio says the books sold at the event come from a variety of places: donations from library patrons, books culled from the library's collection and vendor donations, such as the new books donated by Readerlink Distribution Services. Prices of the books vary from a quarter to 20 percent of list price for new books. Losapio points out it's a great place for teachers to shop for their classrooms.

"We're having a huge sale in August that we think is going to be a tent sale outside, and that's going to be just children's books -- and we're actually going to have a day that we're going to devote for teachers to come and shop," she says. "So many teachers have books in their own classrooms, and a lot of the time they have to buy those books themselves. Most of our children's books are $1 for hardbacks and 50 cents for soft covers. Hopefully we can help them out."

-- Lara Jo Hightower

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FAQ

Friends of the Bentonville Library

Book Sale

WHEN — 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Bentonville Public Library, 405 S. Main St., Bentonville

COST — Free

INFO — 271-3192

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