Choosing Books for Your Children
Selecting just the right books for a group of children or for an individual child is an important step in providing a print-rich environment. Here are helpful tips on choosing children’s books.
Consider your children’s interests. What themes or characters intrigue your children most? Are books with rhyming words special favorites? Stay alert to children’s interests and you will select books they will delight in.
Consider your children’s ages and developmental levels. For your babies and toddlers, books should be durable with simple, large, uncluttered pictures. Twos enjoy short, uncomplicated stories, while preschoolers like predictable stories, rhymes and books that deal with feelings to which they can relate.
Consider the appropriateness of a story. Children should be able to relate to the characters and plot. Avoid stories with characters or events that will be disturbing to children because of their age or own experiences. Look for stories that offer satisfying ending.
Review pictures and text to insure they are free of sex, race, age, and disability bias. Are people of different cultures and racial and ethnic groups portrayed fairly, accurately, and authentically in the story line and through illustrations? Are the settings or environments of minorities described and illustrated in sensitive and positive ways? Are children spoken to and treated with respect? Will the story broaden a child’s understanding and knowledge of others? Will the book have a positive effect on children’s self-esteem regarding their race, gender, ability or culture? 
Pay special attention to the pictures. The illustrations will have the greatest impact on your non-readers, so be sure they are clear, colorful and pleasing to the eye. The text should correspond closely to the illustrations, so children can follow the story from the pictures.
Look for books that will involve children. Are their rhymes to join in on or questions to answer? Look for stories children can dramatize or ones that will inspire them to make up their own ending.
Introduce children to classic tales. Some stories are timeless and should be part of every child’s early experience with literature. Look for fairy tales and folktales like Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Let children choose their own books too! Start children early in the habbit of finding pleasure in a library. On frequent visits bookshop, help children make their own selections of books they would like to hear.