Content as important as reading level when recommending literature for young people.

I've taught 3rd grade readers for almost 15 years and for most of that time, I've focused on a student's reading level when helping them choose books. That's natural, that's my role as a primary level teacher.

But as I work towards my school librarianship, I must remember that I'll be teaching a much broader audience, and being knowledgable about divisions of literature for young people and young adults is just as important as a child's guided reading level. Content and subject matter become increasingly important when recommending literature to students.

For example, some books I've reviewed, like Liar and Spy and Sisters might be found on elementary K-6 campuses, as well as intermediate and middle school campuses. They focus on family and friendship topics that are age appropriate for all middle grade readers. However the central characters in Lily and Dunkin, middle schoolers like Georges in Liar and Spy, also are working through the very personal and more mature issues of transgender bias and mental illness. Including Lily and Dunkin in an elementary or intermediate school collection would clearly be inappropriate. Simply put, Liar and Spy and Sisters are great books for middle grade readers 10-13. Lily and Dunkin and This One Summer (also reviewed on my blog) are wonderful books for middle school readers.

Similarly, it's important to be aware of how literature for middle schoolers might intersect with Young Adult literature that is more appropriate for high school. Much of the young adult literature that students find in high school have story lines involving a young person's first sexual experiences, graphic language, or characters that engage in adult behaviors that are clearly not appropriate for middle school. I'll Give You the Sun is a great novel about how a brother and sister which has very little bad language or sexual content, but the characters engage in some adult, sometimes risky, behaviors that would keep me from recommending it for a middle school library. On the other had, Speak, which tells the story of a young girl who was raped the summer before 9th grade has a definite place in a middle school library.

#divisionsofliterature #textbookreflection #divisionsoflitreflection