Perhaps it would be better to first ask the Mom if she minds you giving her son a few books , and see how the conversation goes from there. Say you have duplicates and he seems to enjoy reading at daycare or something like that.

If you said anything as innocent as "What do you mean, you don't have any books at home? Well, here. We'll fix you up with some." . . . some parents would take that as an insult.. . thinking people thought they couldn't afford books. And I promise you, kids repeat things said to them and not always correctly!

Regarding money being no object. . . I've known people who wouldn't want their child to have a used book, feeling it wasn't "clean" enough.

I remember my Mom (many years ago) saying to be careful about offering things to people because you never knew if they would take it as an insult, or be thrilled to get it. She was talking about hand me down clothing for children at the time, but stipulated that it pertained to anything.

The no books at home reminds me of my son making comments in front of others to his Dad. . .. "You never do anything with me. You're always working." His Dad and I knew this was a ploy to get something he wanted, but a stranger hearing that may have assumed DH really did nothing with our son. That particular day he had taken DS to town for an icecream (just for the fun of it), they had worked together on DS's room for an hour or so and at the moment he was uttering these comments DH was coaching his baseball team.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I agree that children should have books and plenty of them. . .I'm just saying, a four year old's perspective may not be the same as ours.