The Clue to the Children’s Library Collections – Mystery Solved!
I would like to tell you something helpful about the library's children's books and other materials that will make your visit much more interesting and certainly more fun. The clue is in knowing how the books are arranged. Armed with this information you'll know where to look for what you need, or at the very least you'll know the questions to ask. The set-up has a name – It is called The Reading Ladder Arrangement - and it will be the very same no matter what branch you visit. The books are grouped according to the reading development stages of the child.
Picture Books
The very first 'reading' experience begins when you read to your baby – 3 months old is the perfect time to start. Take 20 minutes out of your day to share and enjoy time together. The love of reading begins early at our house, and it should at yours too!
The books in this part of the collection are called the picture books. This part of the collection is a large one, with many titles to choose from. It's part of a child's day to be able to come to the library and choose books to take home. Favourites will be chosen for reading, unfortunately for you, over and over and over again. You'll get tired of them, but guess who won't! The picture books are for birth to about 5 years. However, please note that any age ranges are only suggestions.
Beginning Readers
These are the working "tools" to help a child through the first stages of reading alone. They are short, illustrated, and have a vocabulary of repeated, easy words. The ages are about 4 to 6 years.
Chapter Books
These books will appeal to readers who want the content to be more challenging. Now the book is beginning to look like a regular book, with fewer illustrations, more pages and a more difficult vocabulary. Children reading in this section are about grade 1 to grade 3 (6 to 7 or 8 years).
Advanced Picture Books
This part of the collection has books that look like the picture book in format (large size with full illustrations) but the stories are for the older child with a good command of the language. Teachers will use this section when they are looking for material to help with their school units, and paren'ts whose children still enjoy being read to but need something more challenging, will find it here.
Fiction
The fiction collection is for those who are reading really well and who will be moving into the teens and the adult collections.
Non-fiction
This section contains all levels of reading, so that when someone comes in for project material she or he will find it according to the number system that the library uses. Library staff will help you find the right information for your project.
Next time I will cover a section at a time, with suggestions for titles to look for and enjoy, from the classic to the new, from the first reading experience to the independent and confident reader, from reading for light entertainment to material for the more serious among us.
One thought on “The Clue to the Children’s Library Collections – Mystery Solved!”
Thanks for posting. Very good article and advice. I ve started with my little one with Doman early reading but she didn’t like it,but we are reading “together” and enjoy this a lot.