One of the things I remember best from my childhood is having a million books at my house. Okay, maybe it seemed to be a million. I had my own books, my sister had her own books, I suppose my parents had their own books, and then there were the collective books of the house. We were all readers - my father made me read an article a day from The New York Times starting at the age of seven. Shabbat afternoons were for reading - actually any day or night was for reading.

And while my parents censored what we watched, they never censored what we read.

As parents, it is our responsibility to provide our children with ideas and ideals that we want to give them as our ethical will, as part of their foundation. On the other hand, I think we also need to provide our kids with a variety of ideas and material to read so that they can come to their own decisions about the world - just as we did growing up.

I think one of the most important ways to achieve this is having a good library at home - encouraging your kids to read, reading with your child and having them see you read for fun.

Make sure that your books reflect the make-up of your family - but don't let it end there. For example, if you are a Jewish adoptive family, you should have some books about Jewish families, Jewish adoptive families and adoptive families who aren't specifically Jewish, but you should have a greater variety than that. Put another way, if your family is multiracial, you should have books that have characters of many races in ordinary situations - not just stories that confront the idea of race.

Where to start?

- Local libraries often discard books or sell them cheaply at a fundraiser.

- Look up used bookstores in your local area.

- Try FreeCycle or Craigslist in your area to see who is giving away books. Free is my favorite four letter "F" word!

- Jewish Lights Publications is having a 50% off sale (I'm stocking up)

- Check out the selection at Adoptionshop.com. Wow - that's an amazing number of books on adoption!