In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22nd, I thought I would expand on my blog post “Do you want to be greener On The Go?“ by creating a series of articles on how to be a bit greener. As I mentioned in my previous post, I would by no means consider my household to be “green,” but I am committed to making incremental changes in my lifestyle to reduce my “Shaq” size green foot print to something I am less embarrassed by and could actually stand “in” proudly!
First on my list is used books! Used books are not only a lot greener, but they are also a lot cheaper! Like most children, my kids LOVE books. To my chagrin, they tend to like to read the same books over and over again. In an attempt to maintain some level of sanity, I try to introduce a new book to the rotation as often as possible.
We love our local Chicago Public Library branch, but have found that my one and two year old are just a bit too hard on books for me to borrow them in good conscience! This led me to do some research on used bookstores. To my surprise, a number of the Chicago area used bookstores carry children’s books.
Following is a list of Chicago area used bookstores that have a substantial number of children’s books (more than a couple shelves):
Open Books is a nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond. They have a huge selection of children’s books (over 10,000 at the moment). Plus, the money raised from selling books goes towards their literacy programs.
- Location – 213 W. Institute Pl.
- Phone – 312.475.1355
- Neighborhood – Near North Side
- Events – weekly storytime, monthly puppet show and craft nights
Ravenswood Used Books is a full service used book store with thousands of fine titles packed into an intimate space. They carry books in nearly every category, including children’s. They buy or trade for store credit.
- Location – 4626 N. Lincoln Ave.
- Phone – 773.593.9166
- Neighborhood – Ravenswood/Lincoln Square
Myopic Books is one of Chicago’s oldest and largest used bookstores. They have three floors full of books, an amount totaling over 80,000 editions. They carry sections such as fiction, art, architecture, music, film, philosophy, science, religion, psychology, literary criticism, mythology, children’s, cooking, sci-fi, biography and local history/interest… and many more.
- Location – 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave.
- Phone – 773.862.4882
- Neighborhood – Wicker Park
After-Words has shelves upon shelves stocked with current fiction and nonfiction; as well as used books at a substantial discount. The store searches for obscure and out-of-print books upon request and buys used books from customers, offering cash or store credit in exchange.
- Location – 23 E. Illinois St.
- Phone – 312.464.1110
- Neighborhood – Near North Side
Booklegger’s Used Books has over 10,000 used books in stock on all subjects (including children’s), plus CDs, cassettes, books on cassette and videos.
- Location – 2907 N. Broadway St.
- Phone – 773.404.8780
- Neighborhood – Lakeview
Bookworks offers quality, hardbacks & paperbacks (including children’s books), select new titles and out of print and rare books. Hard to locate and antiquarian items always part of our extensive stock. They also sell used and rare records and CDs with a selection especially strong in jazz, blues and classical music. Other unusual offerings include vintage paperbacks, old paper items and antique photographs.
- Location – 3444 N. Clark St.
- Phone – 773.871.5318
- Neighborhood – Lakeview
Powell’s Bookstore specializes in quality used, rare, and discounted books, primarily academic and scholarly. They are particularly strong in medieval studies and classics, philosophy and books on books, but they also carry many other subjects including children’s books.
- Location – 1501 E. 57th St.
- Phone – 773.955.7780
- Neighborhood – Hyde Park
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carried kids clothes and shoes. They do, and they are having a SALE! It was a regular bonanza of adorable clothes and shoes at ridiculously low prices. Seriously, you need to check it out. It is well worth the 20 mile drive from the city. I got my daughter a pair of Roxy tennis shoes and flip flops for under $15…yes, both pairs. The flip flops were $3 and the tennis shoes were $10!
They had furniture, lighting, bedding, toys, and small furniture (e.g., kitchen sets, tables and chairs). There was a wide variety of styles from cute and traditional to modern and simplistic. I picked up two easels that have dry erase boards on one side, chalk boards on the other side and an optional roll of paper. The 
Hi, I'm an urban explorer of mom and kid friendly events, activities, classes, and restaurants in Chicago. My mission is to discover, explore and share my adventures with other families.