From: Jean Casey <jcasey>
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 07:47:39 -0500

Greetings,

I agree with Katy Horning that "books for independent readers" is hard to define. For instance, I work in a public library and we have "chapter books" in our Early Reader section. Books such as Frog & Toad
(Lobel), Henry & Mudge (Rylant) and Nate the Great
(Sharmat). We also have transitional books for readers who have mastered the beginning readers but who are not yet ready for chapter books without pictures. Books that I recommend in this category include Amber Brown (Danzinger), the Time Warp Trio (Scieszka), Junie B. Jones (Park), Cam Jansen (Adler) and Horrible Harry/Mary Maloney (Kline). I know that these are all series books but I think that reading in a series boosts the self-confidence that these readers need. I also find that these books all have humor as a common thread, which is equally important to independent readers. In our library, transitional books such as these are interfiled alphabetically with the longer fiction. As a result, they sometimes do not reach their intended audience. How do other libraries shelve transitional books? Are they interfiled with general fiction or are they shelved seperately? How do patrons find them if they are interfiled? Do you offer a bibliography? Do the books have a special spine label? Are the books catalogued differently than fiction in the same way that beginning readers are? I would be curious to know what you think about these questions.

Margaret Hall Youth Services Librarian Lisle (Illinois) Library District mlhall30 at yahoo.com


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In response to your question of organizing "bridge books" (I, too, like this tern) In my small k-5 library, we have 3 groupings for fiction. E (for everyone), picture books, E-R ?sy to read, where we have basals and beginning reading, divided into levels assigned by 1st grade teachers, who work with the children as they move along in reading, and Fic -- fiction, including chapter books and some of these transitional books. The e-r books level 5, (most difficult) include some of the Henry and Mudge, Nate the Great and some of the others previously mentioned. The others are in the Fiction shelves along with more difficult materials. I've made this decision based on trying to avoid having the strugglinig emergent reader be embarrassed at checking out the books from the E-R section. As someone has said, there's a lot of pressure for students to move to chapter books, and it can be a morale boost to move into the "official" world of Fiction. It can also remove some of that pressure. Is it perfect? No, but students seem to adjust pretty well to it.
 Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, and Cam Jansen, to name a few, are snapped up and devoured but eager readers, pleased to have made the giant step to chapter books.

Jean Casey
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 07:47:39 AM CDT