Top Tips for Selecting Books with Your Child

This summer we frequented our local children’s library. Luckily, we live in a large urban area that has a library system with multiple branches which includes a large children’s library. If you live in the Southeast, I would highly recommend a visit to ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center. You can read more about it here.

When we walked into the library, I noticed great signage and even bookmarks that can help with selecting books. These signs highlighted several popular book series and where they can be found and even provided the reading level to help guide parents when helping their child select books that would be a good fit. The library also had a reading correlation chart if schools were using a different reading level system. When we went into the stacks, I noticed book marks sticking out of some of the books like the ones seen below. When I look closely, I noticed that the bookmarks had the book’s reading level and the grade level equivalent. I was really excited to see all of these tools that have been added to help parents and children select books that will be accessible and appropriate for a reader.

When we checked out our books, we noticed stacks of bookmarks lined up across the table. My kids love bookmarks so they were eager to pick up a few. These great bookmarks are organized by grade level and offers our library system’s top book recommendations. While the librarians are always more than happy to recommend a book, these bookmarks are great to explore new books and serve as a handy reference.

Years before, I provided several workshops for the library staff about how teachers, parents, and district leaders were talking about books and reading levels in our local school system. The library staff jumped on the opportunity to serve the community by having the tools to help parents and children select good fit books. The library learned about the Fountas and Pinnell Reading Level System that the school system (actually the entire state of NC) adopted to measure reading abilities.

If you have read any of my reading level posts or taken my Raising Motivated Readers Course, you know that I am a fan of the information and guidance reading levels can provide. Reading levels can be a super helpful place to start when you are trying to find good fit books. If you want to know more about reading levels and how they are determined click here.

Many publishers are including reading levels on the back of their books to assist in knowing if the book is a good fit for your child. Many Scholastic books, like the ones seen here make the reading level easy to find. Sometimes the levels are even visible on the front cover, like the Animal Antics series.

What if you don’t know your child’s reading level – where do you start?

(Even if you know your child’s reading level, these tips can help you too)

Here are some ideas about where to look:

Find a book your child enjoys reading and seems like a good fit. Look up the book on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other large booksellers and see what other customers have searched for or purchased. These options typically pop up at the bottom of the page when searching a title. Be wary of sponsored books – sometimes they are a great fit and sometimes they are not.
Subscribe to emails from your bookstore for recommendations. We often get emails that say because you purchased ____, you may like ______, _____,______.
Ask your bookseller and librarian for recommendations. Encourage your child to share “I’m the kind of reader who enjoys _____ (description of their book interests).”

To determine book interests, you can ask your child to:

Think about books they’ve loved. What do they have in common?

Share what they would tell a friend if they were going to ask them for a book recommendation.

Consider what they like outside of reading that might help them find a good fit book. You can ask them, “Based on what you like to do, what kinds of books do you think you’d want to read?”

Tell you about the series, the authors, or the genres they enjoy the most.

Check out recommendation sites like Brightly or Good Reads.
Ask your child’s teacher for recommendations.
Encourage your child to ask their friends for recommendations.
Look for companion books.
- My daughter started the Magic Treehouse series and found she really enjoyed them and then she discovered the non-fiction research-based companion guides (Fact Trackers) and she has been loving those too. After reading a few of the original Magic Treehouse series she felt confident in tackling the Merlin Missions which have the same main characters, a similar plot line, but are longer and more challenging.
- Another example is the Amelia Bedilia, Fancy Nancy, and Judy Moody series that have easier readers and chapter books so your child can grow with the characters (click on one of the below images to explore these or other options in these series).

Here are some additional considerations for selecting texts:

Choose non-fiction texts with compelling topics, images, and descriptions that will engage your child.
Choose texts that have great examples of high-quality writing. Some of the easy readers that are trying to reinforce certain sounds can be discouraging or unengaging for your child.
For younger readers, look at the illustrations to make sure that nonfiction texts include simple graphics that will help your child learn how to synthesize information from the graphics and the text.
For readers who are reading more difficult texts, look at the illustrations to make sure that nonfiction texts include complex graphics that will help your child learn how to synthesize information from the graphics and the text.
Make sure that fiction texts have high quality illustrations (if applicable) that enhance the meaning of the text and communicate the mood.
Select texts that have deeper messages so your child can think deeply about a text.

It is SUPER important that your child is able to select books for themselves.

Here are the steps to selecting good fit books that will encourage and effectively challenge your child.

Teach your child the steps to selecting a book:

Look at the cover.
Read the title.
Read the back blurb (if available)
Open the book and try to read.
Does the book feel like a good fit?

Teach your child how to determine if a book is a good fit book for them:

A book is a good fit if:

The book interests you.
You can understand the story.
You can read mostof the words.
You feel good about yourself as a reader.
Helps you become a better reader.
You are enjoying

Check out the reading level specific posts to provide more targeted support and challenges for your reader. You can also find book recommendations for each level to use as a guide for selecting books with your child.