Categories for books By MrsT

Class Favorites
Our Newest Books
Farovite Authors
Gal Books
Guy Books (the kids like these distinctions but also understood that boys or girls might enjoy books from either category)
Mysteries
Fantasy
Realistic Fiction
School Stories
Hard (Not Harder or Hardest) for our easier books
American History
Animals (had some subcategories like Horsed if we had a lot of books about one particular animal)
Plants
Space
You get the idea. The kids came up with many of the categories. I ordered lots of books from Scholastic every month and each time an order arrived we had a "silent book pass." The kids had about 30 seconds to look at a book before passing it to the next kid (we sat in a circle). After each kid previewed each book, we would decide together where each book should be shelved. The kids loved this activity and it had 2 great benefits. Each student found several books they wanted to read (more effective than my introducing each book) and they knew where to find it (or ould ask a friend) in the classroom library.