Need library tips

[rafiki]

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[skaterbabs]

I keep the library books in one tote bag - this prevents losing them. :p

 

If a child wants to check out a book we've already read (only happens with DD), I generally steer her to other things, but if she's set on it we'll check it out again.

 

For school books, I reserve the wants I want.

[oakmom]

We used to have a lot of fines in overdue library books. Now we go to the library on the same day each week (Friday). The benefit of this is that the books always come due on a Friday. On Fridays before we head off to the library I am able to look online and see what is due that day that has not been returned yet and I can either renew them or return them. This has helped us A LOT! Most of our books get returned before the come due as we have a big bag that the kids can put library books in when they're finished with them and they get returned on our next trip.

 

Also, I keep a general list of recommended books from various sources and consolidate them into a list of my own. This way when I find another great book, I can search my list to see if it is already included on MY list. This list includes fiction, science, art, and all types of books.

 

I also keep a booklist for each volume of SOTW and organize it by chapter. This list includes historical fiction and nonfiction.

 

When we go to the library my children each choose their own books, plus I choose books from my general list and current SOTW chapter. This works for us. They usually read the books they chose first and then run out of them and start to read the books that I chose. Most of my kids love to read, but I do have a son that I have to make sure that he read for at least an hour a day. This system works for us.

[oakmom]

I already responded, but I see that I didn't answer your questions.

 

I gather recommended books from many sources, SOTW Activity guide, Great Books for Girls, Great Books for Boys, The Read-Aloud Handbook, Sonlight catalog, etc.

 

I don't keep track of what my children read. That would be a lot of work. We just check a lot of books out from the library and let them go at it.

 

How do you tame all your book lists? I have a stack of printouts from all over and no system.

 

What are your favorite resources for selecting read alouds and readers for your kids?

 

How do you keep track of who has read what?

 

How do you keep up with a child who devours books?

[Letty's3Angels]

I am also interested in this subject. I will start HMSCing this coming year and am trying figure out how all of you do it with the overwhelming lists out there. I like the idea mentioned of creating your own list combining from different lists. I wonder if there are others that can share how they manage.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

How do you tame all your book lists? I have a stack of printouts from all over and no system.

I can't say that I've tamed all of my book lists, but I've started by making a separate list for just the history books in a four year cycle.

 

What are your favorite resources for selecting read alouds and readers for your kids?

Early elementary, I love the Sonlight lists and the literature at www.tanglewoodeducation.com. Now, we are choosing more books from the 1000 Good Books List.

 

How do you keep track of who has read what?

I have a list of what they have read for school on their weekly check sheets. I don't keep track of what they read for fun. If they ask me for a suggestion, I usually say, "Have you read ...?" The older they get, the more books I have to suggest before finding one they haven't read already.

 

How do you keep up with a child who devours books?

I limit what she can read to books that I read as a child or books on the list in Honey for a Child's Heart. Beyond that most of the time she has to wait for me to read or at least skim through the book first. HTH

[ConnieB]

As far as organizing books....we have a separate bookcase that is exclusively for library books. They are put there when we first get home from the library. NO personal books are allowed on this case...and no library books are allowed on the other bookcases. When a book is finished and ready to be returned to the library we have a wicker basket near the door that they go into....on library day (a set day of the week so like someone else mentioned our books are always due the same time each week) we simply scoop them all up and go.

 

I used to have the same problem....zillions of lists everywhere, written in notebooks, bookmarks on my computer, word docs, the library wish lists and paper here, there and everywhere. I finally spent one summer getting it all together on an excel spreadsheet. I did a lot of revising but finally settled on columns for:

 

NOTE: Some of the columns may seem unnecessary, but they are there more for their sort value.....since my list now has several thousands entries it's essential to be able to sort by need.

 

First is a single space to put an X if we own the book. I've lately been thinking I should put WHERE it is, lol...but that tends to move around too much to really help. But at least knowing for sure that we own it is helpful. This is also very helpful when shopping used sales to know whether I already have it. It's also, admittedly, the hardest column because I have to diligently keep it accurate or it will lose it's entire value!

 

Next is a blank space for each of my children....then when a book is something I expect them to read at some point, or is one that they would enjoy I put an X in the column for them. For instance, some books are decidedly "boy" or "girl" books and if it's not one I expect everyone to read I mark just the boys or just the girls. When the child has read the book I put the first letter of their name in it....this sorts it nicely when I click on Susie's list and all the S go together but all the X sort together as well, so now I can skip looking at the ones Susie read. It doesn't matter that two children in the family have the same initial, the idea is really just to get the X removed but not leave it blank either. The X meaning I want them to read it and a blank meaning I don't.

 

 

 

Reading level (sometimes books have this indicated, there are also some websites to determine it, but mostly I guesstimate. I tend to put in the youngest age/grade that I think they should read it, knowing that I can always put it off for another year.

 

Title

Author

 

Fiction or NonFiction (this is a one space column either F or N. I later added B for biography and F for free read just to make the sorting process work better).

 

Description (I often cut/paste this from somewhere online that I've either found the book or somewhere like Amazon where I can get the detailed information I want/need. )

 

Timeline (if the book relates to a time period in history I list the date or event...i.e. 1492 or Columbus.)

 

Resources (Here I list anything else I have to go along with it....websites, study guides, crafts, ideas, etc. This is another one that I try to keep up to date as I find resources and think "oh we should do this when we read that").

 

Libraries (I have cards to several different city's libraries so it's helpful to know which one carries it as a book and/or as a movie or audio).

 

Pages (knowing this has been helpful when I'm looking for something to assign and I want it to take a certain amount of time....don't usually want to choose a 300 page book if I want him to read it in a day....on the other hand if it's a book to read/listen to during a 3 hour car drive, I don't want a 1 CD audiobook!)

 

Source (usually this is just the first place that I found the book listed because many many many of them are listed on more than one list. It also helps me to compile a list like below when someone asks a question like yours, lol. A LOT of the entires are simply WTM meaning this board.

 

 

As for places that I have gotten my booklist....most of the ones already mentioned, this board often has threads about "what do we read for X " and I'll check those and add ones that sound good. Some websites I've used to list books (not all of these books, even the award winning ones were something I deemed appropriate or worthy, but it was a good starting point and then I'd look at Amazon or elsewhere for more details before adding to MY list):

 

Newberry Medal and Honor Books

 

Caldecott Medal and Honor Books

 

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award (Dr Seuss)

 

Sibert Medal and Honor Books

 

Pura Belpre Award

 

Michael L Printz Award

 

Carnegie Medal (for videos)

 

Batchelder Award

 

Coretta Scott King Book Award

 

Notable books for Children

 

Notable Children's Recordings

 

Kidsreads.com classic reading lists

 

1000 Good Books Lists

 

101 out of this world books for kids ages 8-13

 

Horn Book lists

 

ATN book lists There are literally thousands of lists here, sorted by awards, authors, genre, and so on.

 

Another lists of lists

 

There are more, but that gives you an idea. Most big (and many small) public libraries have an online list of recommendations. Check things like New York City Public Library or any major city through google.

 

And then of course, there are BOOKS of book lists, lol. (of course WTM too)

 

All Through the Ages by Christine Miller

Books Children Love by Elizabeth WIlson

Books that Build Character by William Kilpatrick

Books to Build On by E.D. Hirsch

Great Books of Christian Tradition by Terry Glaspey

Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt

Invitations to the Classics by Louise Cowan

Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher

Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian

Reading Teacher's Book of Lists by Edward Fry (there is a whole series of these like Literature Teacher's... American History Teacher's....Art, Science, Vocabulary, writing, literature, math, social studies, etc.)

 

 

 

As for the child that devours books....rejoice! And then go check out a few of the book of book lists above (and look on your library shelf all around those same call numbers as there are a lot more that I don't have listed because my hand is growing tired of typing, lol). There are books of lists by age and gender. As my kids grew old enough to navigate the online library catalog, I set them up looking up books they found in these lists that interested them to know which library (if any) we could borrow it from. I have them make a list of those books for me to review before we borrow, again usually I read about it on Amazon or other book sites. Questionable ones are removed from the list until I can research deeper, the rest they are then free for them to check out. They can easily find hundreds this way.

Edited April 15, 2009 by ConnieB

[tricia]

This is one I CANNOT answer. We are the family with a 125.00 library fine. Yep, it's paid off but we had to wait until January when they did the foods for fines deal. You can bring in anything and it counts for a buck. Tons of mac and cheese and ramon noodles. Cheap I know. But otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it paid and I can't believe I just posted this horror story on the internet:tongue_smilie: This is what happens when you have 12 people using the same library. It does add up.

[Starr]

You are looking for help to tame the book list? LOL No help here! :lol:

 

I do use TWTM lists and the lists in the Story of the World Activity Books .

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Does your library participate in Library Elf?

[ChicoryChick]

I only have a few sole sources for my recommended list:

 

Heart of Dakota (this is the curriculum we use and have loved the books she recommends)

 

Veritas Press

 

Beautiful Feet

 

and any books that my sister or SIL recommend! That's it. I keep an ongoing word document with my wishlist, deleting as I get a book and adding as I find a new recommended one. I also do this on librarything where I have my books and ones I want are tagged WISHLIST. This is also nice as I can go online at the library if I forget my list at home (and you can get librarything on your cellphone although I haven't done this).

 

As for library books, we keep them on the piano and they are not to leave the living room (so they won't get lost under beds, on our bookshelves etc)