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5 Minutes for Books: Too Many Toys

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

On the day before Amanda got out of school for Thanksgiving break, she had to decorate five feathers that would be stuck on her turkey. Each feather had to list one thing she was thankful for. She asked me, “Do you think it would be okay to say that I’m thankful that you have the 5 Minutes for Books site because we get a lot of really great books and stuff?”

It was funny, but she’s right. I too am thankful that my hobby of reading has turned into a bit of a job here and at the new site. I’d always be reading, but one of the perks is that we do get to look at so many books that we might not normally even know about.

So a few weeks ago, four-year-old Kyle was resisting naptime, so I was able to pull something fun out of my hat as an incentive,. “Oh — I have a cool new book we can read as a bedtime story,” I said as I brought Too Many Toys by David Shannon to his room. “Look, it’s called Too Many Toys.”

“Like I have too many toys,” he said (catching on quickly). “But I don’t want to give them away!”

As you might imagine, this book is about a young boy who had too many toys. His family tripped over them, he hoarded even the ones that were broken, and his mom finally decided that some of them had to go!

This book is illustrated in David Shannon’s typical bright and whimsical style. I think that kids are attracted to the larger-than-life characterizations of the children, parents, and even inanimate objects.

Kyle enjoyed it, chuckling in all the right places, and has even asked to hear it again. As for me — well, it’s inspired me to clear out some of those toys, and to even think twice about what I buy — for my kids and others — this holiday season.

Check it out and see if you don’t agree that there are Too Many Toys in your home as well.

I wouldn’t want to add to the problem, but books don’t count as toys, right? We all need books, so are giving away 3 copies. Leave a comment and I’ll announce the winners in December 8th’s book column. This contest is open to US shipping addresses. Due to legal restrictions, this promotion is not available in Arizona.

Please see our site’s Terms and Conditions of Use for a complete list of our Contest and Giveaway Rules.

I don’t have any winners to announce today, because the two contests from last week are still open. You can enter to win the new book by J.K. Rowling HERE and a Klutz activity book prize pack HERE.

Reader Interactions


165 Comments

  3. many of our students have no books in their home. i’d love to win this and give it to one of our students.

  4. His books are always great. I work at a library and the kids are constantly checking them out. Great giveaway.

  11. Another wonderful read on a cold winter day! I would love to win this funny educational whimiscal book!
    Thanks for the great givaway!

  20. I just cleaned out all of the broken and unused toys in my house, and it still seems like there are too many! Thanks for the great giveaway!

    Teresa690[at]gmail[dot]com

  27. I always encouraged my daughter to read and now she’s doing the same with her daughter. I would like to win this book for them.

  28. Love his other books, and this one looks very fitting for our household. Definitely one I’d like to add to our collection.

  40. I *might* have too many books. They’re costly in a move. 🙁
    I am positive we have too many toys. We’re in the process of clearing some out this week.

  56. I could use a little encouragement to clear out some toys. We 6 children, ages 15 yrs to 11 mo….we keep toys around because someone will eventually want to play with it. My children are usually not too hard on their toys…so, we often do not have broken toys. It would be nice to donate some to a new home.

  65. another great giveaway… please count me in.. i love the idea of giving kids books…start the love for them when they are young.

  70. Oh, you can never have too many books! We have several of David Shannon’s David books since my son’s name is David. I think my David, who’s also 4, would enjoy this one too!

  71. We are currently LOVING this book from the library!! Would love to add it to our personal home library. 🙂

  74. While you could have too many toys, it would be hard to have too many books! We’d love to win!

  75. I have too many toys and we are getting ready to purge! I’d love to share this with my family and classroom.

  77. We really enjoy books and have read quite a few of David shannon’s books and really liked them. Thanks for this chance.

  79. What a great title for a book – and such an important message! I’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed by all of our “stuff” lately and I think this book would be ideal for talking to my 2-year-old daughter about how “things” are not very important. People matter most.

  82. I agree, you can’t have too many good books.Fortunately they’re easy too store. I would like to read this to my 4 year old grandson who has way too many toys!
    smchester at gmail dot com

  90. IF I WOULD WIN, I WOULD GIVE TO MY FRIEND…HIS NICKANME FOR HIS FARMING BUSINESS IS “TOO MANY TOYS”!!!

  95. hmmm we just had a “too many toys” talk with my 4 yr old dd and 10 yr old son just the other day….This would be SO appropriate for us to read before bed lol 🙂 THanks for the chance to win!

  104. David Shannon is one of my favorite children’s book writers. I just love reading his stories to my kids.

  108. Even my grandchildren think they have too many toys. One of them told me their house looks like a Toys R US! lol I would love to give them this book!
    mittens0831 AT aol.com

  114. Books are the one thing that I have a hard time getting rid of. You can NEVER have too many books. But too many TOYS is a concept my kids certainly need to learn!

  115. My son’s stepdaughter loves the David Shannon books. This would be the icing on the cake for her.

  127. Thanks for a great book suggestion! Just in case we don’t win, I’m putting it on hold at the library. We love books!

  128. My daughters are veteran garage sale shoppers and always come home with dozens of stuffed animals they got for a quarter or a dime apiece. Maybe this book will help get the message across and reduce the clutter!

  132. Please enter me…I love david shannon books. and my boys definitely have too many toys!
    My sidebar sports a 5M4M button. Woo hoo.

  135. This book looks like something the kids would enjoy and can relate to. We have tons of books and always welcome more.

  138. Sounds like a great read. Our girls love books as well. We have quite a few but I too do not consider books as toys. One always needs a good book.

    Thanks so much for sharing your review and a copy of the book!

  141. My 7 year old daughter needs this book! We are currently having issues with the too many toys thing for Christmas this year.

  145. you can never have to many books but to many toys I think that make kids not have to use there imaginations

  146. I’m a Librarian who is about to become a mom – would love this in our collection! Sounds like a fun book – I’ll make sure our public library has it too…

  148. I would love a little bit of inspriation to get rid of some of the toys! Sounds like a cute book. Thanks!

  149. sounds like a great book- when we have too many books we donate them to the daycare, the school and the library…the kids know if I step on or get flipped with a book I am going to say too many toys- time to clean…would love to read this

  151. We definitely have too many toys. I don’t think there is such a thing as too many books. My husband would disagree, but oh well!

  155. We definitely have too many toys. Just tonight, a friend suggested that we wrap up toys our toddler already had and give them to him again for Christmas. He won’t notice. It’s all about the joy of unwrapping.

  159. we are big david shannon fans in this house! our favorite pages in “no david” are getting a bit worn…

    we’d love to win a copy of this new book!