Saying goodbye to books

This was a conversation between Joseph and me the other day.

Joseph: See all these books on my bookshelves, Mom?  I need to take out the baby books. There are too many little kid books in my room.

Mom: Well, okay.  Which books are you talking about? (Joseph starts piling books off his shelf into a pile). Wait, what are you doing?  Oh, you can't mean Molly Lou Melon or Seven Silly Eaters or the Little Critter books. What?  King Bidgood's in the Bathtub is an awesome book. And Love You Forever and Guess How Much I Love You and No, David!  Surely you're not ready to give up these books yet, Joseph? They're so wonderful (Mom sinks down to the floor and starts thumbing through her favorite books).

Joseph (in a very patient tone of voice):  Mom, I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm six. And I need big kid books in my room now.  Chapter books and books about science and sports and jokes and stuff. Can't you give the babyish books to someone who is a baby?

And thus it began. After almost two decades of gathering the best children's books for our home bookshelves, we now have begun thinning out the books. Because there is no one left to pass down the books to in our family.

Joseph and I worked together and reached a middle ground we could both agree upon.  I told him we could take out all the board books and Winnie the Pooh and Sesame Street and early reading primers, but our favorite great classic children's books just had to stay somewhere accessible for now.  Joseph agreed, as long as we brought into his room all the chapter books, science, sports and joke books we own.

So this was the end result:

We filled a total of three boxes (not all pictured) with books that we are holding onto for someday (and made three big piles of books to give away).  It's not like me to hold onto stuff. I gleefully get rid of outgrown clothes and toys and extra household stuff.  I get a "DI high" every time we drop off a load of donation. I love to get rid of stuff, but books are different. They are special and meaningful and I love them. So, for the next who knows how many years we will find a way to store my boxes of books, and then someday I'll pull out the boxes when I'm a grandma, and maybe the kids will want to take some of their favorite books to read to their own children. 

We organized the two bookshelves in his room by category (Berenstain Bears, superhero, chapter books, science, Magic School Bus, Dr. Seuss, etc.).  And we are both happy. Except I'm just wondering who told my baby that he was allowed to grow up?