TOS Crew Member Review: Homeschool Library Builder

Homeschool Library Builder is geared toward serving homeschoolers and others who use excellent literature to educate. They also provide other services to their customers to make the homeschool life a bit easier.


• Books. They offer new and gently used books for all ages at affordable prices, giving others an opportunity to build their own home library. Stock titles used in literature-based curricula (Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside, Five in a Row, Beautiful Feet, and others) as well as those useful for unit studies for all interests and grade levels.

• Book Search. If a customer needs an out-of-stock book or a title not previously carried, they are happy to search for it.

• Product Marketing. Wow! Marketing is expensive! For a small company like HSLB or others who want to launch a newly-created product or service, purchasing ad space in magazines or on the internet oftentimes just isn’t an option. The HSLB Market Place offers the opportunity to get the word out about “homegrown” product or service through their website as well as their monthly online newsletter. This is a free service offered to our HSLB members.

• Spotlight on the Season. Throughout the year they preview and select sites for the current season or holiday, so that the customers can eliminate searching and filtering, and enjoy that special time of year with their children. They also provide links to some of their favorite homeschool resources.

• Helping Hand. Through the Helping Hand program they have had the opportunity to raise money for those in need, such as a young autistic boy living near the Alaskan wilderness who needed a service dog, Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child or the victims from the Chinese earthquakes or the Gulf hurricanes. Currently our Helping Hand program is focusing on Haiti. They have a specially designated category of books whereby all money goes to helping others. Often times HSLB matches the amount raised for a particular cause.

• Frequent Buyer Program. When a customer becomes an HSLB member (free of charge, of course!) HSLB offer incentive programs through their book points program. Fifteen book points equals one dollar for use toward future purchases. These points never expire.

Points can be earned a number of ways:
1. Purchasing Books (one book point is earned for every dollar spent on books)
2. Referring friends to HSLB
3. Linking HSLB’s Website from the Customer’s Website or Blog

Go to Homeschool Library Builder and take a look around—we hope you enjoy browsing through the many categories they have to offer. Also, you will soon receive the online newsletter, which is published regularly to inform customers of upcoming sales and promos. February’s promo combines great savings with a wonderful opportunity to be a Helping Hand to the people of Haiti.

Celebrate February with a SWEETHEART OF A DEAL!

20% off all month long!No coupon necessary -- your discount will be taken at check-out!

Celebrate February with a SWEETHEART OF A DEAL!

If you use any of these curriculums below, the HSLB site will be more useful to you, but great for ANYONE who loves books!

1. AMBLESIDE
2. BEAUTIFUL FEET
3. FIVE IN A ROW
4. HEART OF DAKOTA
5. SONLIGHT
6. TAPESTRY OF GRACE
7. VERITAS PRESS

They have several payment options:
a. credit card
b. Paypal (yeah!!)
c. book points (click here for more info)
d. gift certificate (in case someone wants to be generous to the Stemmerding family) =]
e. checks

Product:
Julie Huffman and Gayla Weatherford
Homeschool Library Builder
Email: info@hslibrarybuilder.com
Phone: 800-718-7986


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Stemmerding Take of Homeschool Library Builder:

We enjoy viewing this site because; 1.) the membership is free; 2.) the prices are fantastic!! Adding a homeschool library does and has been expensive throughout this year; being that this is our first homeschool year. I catch myself buying books after books--which adds up BTW!! This is why I so love being on the TOS Homeschool Crew this year--it gives me the opportunity to review many homeschool products at no cost to me, but reviewing awesome products or (like this product) a homeschool website service (living books) is worth the time and effort to review.

What is living books? I liked what Diane McKee -- Founder of Homeschool Library Builder defines it as:

Living books engage the reader and touch him personally...they often teach moral lessons and foster discussions. A great living book will entice the reader to share her thoughts about a character or idea. I believe Living Books help us become better parents and bring families together - an overwhelming need in our society. I could go on, but generally Living Books engage, thrill, teach, stimulate, fulfill, and build-up the reader! You know one when you experience one!

I definitely will plan to buy and research my books from Homeschool Library Builder before I look anywhere else for books that we would love to purchase. The prices, I believe, can not be beat anywhere else for new or used books in great condition--as I have seen yet far.

Homeschool Library Builder has an easy process to view the titles, it tells you of the condition of the book(s) you're buying, the orginial price vs. the price you can purchase at, reading level of the books (which is helpful for me), author, type of book, and a short description of the book. If you do plan to purchase any books, please mention (Jessica S. @ Mother of Action) with your first purchase...it will let HSLB know where they need to concentrate on advertising...and refer others to HSLB and get book points for yourself!!

NOTE: I am not paid to do the product reviews, so my review is exactly how I feel about the educational product and how my family used it. The TOS HOMESCHOOL CREW is a group of 100+ product reviewers who share reviews on MANY products that are available to homeschoolers.

To view other reviews of HSLB please visit here. If you would like to be on the 2010TOS Homeschool Crew visit here! Thanks for stopping by!