Recommended Book Lists on the Visual Tab

The Visual Tab of our library catalog is where we gather all sorts of resources for the CAC community. One of these resources is our selection of book lists.

CAC was fortunate to have a visit last week from literacy consultant, Christy Curran. Her presentation to parents on how to encourage children to read was well attended and filled with excellent advice.

One of the tip that most resonated with me was about "reading to your children, with your children and reading along with your children." My children are teenagers now, but we spent a lot of time reading together when they were little. I wish we hadn't stopped! Our reading time was special.

One happy benefit of our early reading life is that my 17-year-old son has started recommending great books to me. So far I've read The Martian, Wool and Ready Player One thanks to him. I've loved them all, but what I've loved even more are the discussions we've had about the books.

Receiving recommendations from others is a great way to discover new authors and genres. The library catalog has collected several lists recommending books on its Visual Tab. Click here to go directly to the Visual Tab Book Lists page.  Continue reading below for instructions in how to get there.

To access the library catalog's Visual Tab,

1. navigate to the library catalog. (We recommend bookmarking it on your browser.) http://cacegypt.org
2. Select the elementary library catalog. 
3. Click on the tab marked Visual on the main search page.
4. Click on the "Book Lists" button. 

You will see links from the American Library Association as well as lists of US and UK award winners. All of these include quality literature for children. We have most of the titles featured on those lists. 

Also on the Book List page are two websites: Common Sense Media and the Scholastic Parents' page. These offer recommendations by age. The Common Sense Media website includes reviews on books, movies, apps and other media. One thing that I like about the Common Sense Media site is that for each of the books (or movies, apps, etc.) it includes a section called "Families Can Talk About..." which lists discussion points for the book. 

The Scholastic Parents' site includes recommended lists by age here, and lots of resources to help with homework. 

Please note that including these two sites in this blog post does not constitute CAC endorsement for either. They are offered only as an additional resource.