What Materials are Found in a School-aged Collection

The school-aged collection is vast and varied. It must include materials to meet a variety of levels and interests - personal as well as school assignment/research needs.

Commonly, the children’s collection would include the following categories (and sample titles or authors):

• Picture books
  Classics new and old such as Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak), Miss Rumphius (Cooney), Stinky Cheese Man (Scieszka), Yoko (Wells), and series such as Arthur, Berenstain Bears, Clifford, and Curious George.
   
• Picture books for older readers
  These books are in picture book format but contain subject matter and text that are more involved. Examples include: Smoky Night (Bunting), Home of the Brave (Say), and Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad (Edwards)
  These books can also be used in older grades to teach literary devices such as foreshadowing, irony, etc.
   
• Easy Readers
  Basal series such as Rookie Readers, Green Light, Ready to Read
  Popular series that move toward chapter books such as Henry and Mudge (Rylant), Amelia Bedelia (Parrish), Fox (Marshall), Gus and Grandpa (Mills), Nate the Great (Sharmat), and Frog and Toad (Lobel)
  Or stories like Green Eggs and Ham (Seuss), The Fire Cat (Averill) A Fly Went By (McClintock) or Josefina’s Story Quilt (Coerr).
   

• Fiction – popular and classic with a focus on paperbacks
  Common fiction genres are:
  Historical fiction,  Fantasy/Science Fiction
  Animal Stories Mystery
  Adventure Sports
  Humor Scary Stories
  Popular authors to get a collection started are:
  Avi, Beverly Cleary, Andrew Clements, Bruce Coville, Sharon Creech, Karen Cushman, Roald Dahl, Jean Craighead George, James Howe, Peg Kehret, Ann Martin, Barbara Park, Gary Paulsen, Louis Sachar and E.B. White
   

• Series fiction such as:
  American Girl
  Boxcar Children
  American Diaries Dear America/My Name is America
  Arthur Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew
  Bailey School Kids
  Magic Tree House
   

• Poetry:
  Collections by Douglas Florian, Jack Prelutsky, Shel Silverstein, etc.
  Individual/one poem books such as Angelou’s Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

  
  

• Short stories:
  Gary Soto, Jane Yolen, and new and classic collections such as Scary Stories for Sleepover, Book of Pirates, and Sherlock Holmes Mysteries
   
• Folk and Fairy tales
  Single tales such as Zelinsky’s Rapunzel, San Souci’s Pedro and the Monkey, or Kimmel’s Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock or collections of tales like Lester’s Tales of Uncle Remus, Hamilton’s The People Could Fly, or Pinkney’s illustrated Aesop’s Fables.
   
• Curriculum supporting nonfiction including:
  Reference materials on all levels. Core materials would include:
  atlases; encyclopedias both general like World Book and specific like Grzimek’s Encyclopedia of Mammals; dictionaries and thesauri; almanacs, collective biographies such as Who’s Who and Men of Mathematics; science experiment collections, Native American resources, timelines, and Culturegrams.
  Research guides and format aids such as how to write a book report/term paper, the scientific method, using the Internet for research, etc.
   

• General interest/curiosity nonfiction that includes:
  Quick facts, curiosities, and trivia
  Highly visual materials on subjects such as animals, space, human body
  Hi-Lo (high interest-low reading level materials that are perfect for reluctant or below-level readers)
   
• Comic books and magazines – general interest and specialized subjects
  Some popular titles include:
   

  Spiderman	Batman
  American Girl	Cricket/Cobblestone/Faces
  Boys Life	Kids Discover
  Nick Jr.	National Geographic World
  Highlights	Sports Illustrated for Kids

   

• Multimedia
  Cassette (or CD) kits are book and audio “read-along” sets. These come in picture book, easy reader, and juvenile fiction.
  Audio books on CD or cassette - preferably unabridged
  Music CDs and cassettes presenting a variety of music genres and world beats
  Videos - movie and nonfiction such as the Eyewitness series and Bill Nye
  CD-ROMs are very popular in public libraries.
   
• Large print or Braille materials

Resources such as The Children’s Catalog and Elementary School Library Collection are useful tools in identifying core materials in a children’s collection.

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