School is back in session! It is hard to believe how quickly summer passed. Hopefully, many of our young readers and guardians spent some of their summer reading and participating in EVPL’s Summer Learning Program. With school starting again, it felt like a great time to talk about a special collection project taking place at EVPL North Park.
The Easy Reader collection is a popular collection for emerging readers throughout the EVPL system. Staff members are often asked for resources to help children and guardians begin the journey to independent reading. Like most of our fiction collections, however, the Easy Reader collection is categorized by alphabet using the author’s last name. While this is the preferred way for readers to browse our collections, it can be a barrier to guardians, teachers, and librarians when selecting books in the Easy Reader Collection. Every publisher has created their own level for their books, so what books are appropriate for your new reader?
In 2018, EVPL North Park started testing a new way to categorize their Easy Reader collection. Stacy H., Experience Manager I, used a color-coded system to allow guardians and teachers a way to find appropriate books for new and struggling readers. The color-coded system includes green stickers for books considered for “Very Beginning” readers, red stickers for “Emergent” readers, blue stickers for “Fluent” readers, and orange stickers for “Solid” readers.
We encourage you to visit EVPL North Park to experience the Easy Reader collection! Throughout the fall, we will be surveying parents, guardians, teachers, and librarians to determine if this collection has aided in finding developmentally appropriate books for new and struggling readers. If you have used this collection and miss one of our survey opportunities, please feel free to email your thoughts and opinions to learn@evpl.org.
Happy Reading!
