Building a classroom library of age-appropriate books for ELA students can be exhaustive. Not all books that are labeled as “Young Adult” are actually age-appropriate for all students. One of the most popular questions I get is, “How do I know this book will be appropriate for my students?” I could do an entire post on the level of appropriateness currently in the Young Adult genre. That may come at another time. The fact is, not every YA book will be appropriate for every family. It would be great if there was some kind of uniform system to help you figure out exactly what kind of content is inside the book, but unfortunately, it doesn’t exist yet. So instead I’m going to walk you through my process of vetting a book for a specific audience.
Parent Letter
First, I start with a very strong permission letter to send to parents or guardians. You can’t read every single book in the world. I also believe that the important adults in the students’ lives should share in the journey to decide what is appropriate for their own kids. Sending the title and author home to allow parents and guardians to look into the book or read it themselves is a good practice. I often utilize an “opt out” system instead of an “opt in” just for ease, but you can do what’s best for you. I’ll also send an email home letting grown ups know that the letter is on the way so that they don’t miss it. You can find a link to the letter I used myself for many years as well as a Google form for digital use here.
Goodreads Summary and Reviews
Next, I head to Goodreads and search for the title. The first thing is make sure it is shelved as Young Adult. You can do this by scrolling to the bottom and checking the tags. The second task is to read the reviews. Oftentimes, reviewers will make a list of content warnings in their overview. If it’s a book I haven’t personally read, I look for those first. Overall I try to get a good “taste” of what the book has to offer and what might be red flags. In some cases, I might hold off on a book until I can actually make time to read it or find someone who has for more insight.
Common Sense Media
Another handy resource is Common Sense Media. This is an excellent resource to vet different types of media for kids. They don’t have every single book listed, but more often than not, it’ll be there. There are several different aspects you can look at, like if there’s any “iffy content” or what parents might want to “talk to your kids about”. These are the kinds of things that I might include in my parent letter as far as what content might be in the book. You can also read parent reviews left on the website.
Crowdsource
If I’m striking out completely with these sources, I’ll tap into my network on Instagram. I follow a lot of great accounts who can come through in a pinch and give great recommendations and reviews. If for some reason you get stuck when vetting a book, please feel free to reach out. I’ve helped plenty of teachers crowdsource information on titles. So if you need someone to do that for you, I’m happy to help. Shoot me a DM on Instagram @samanthainsecondary if you’ve gone through all of these steps and are still having trouble finding information on a title.
Resources for Your Classroom
If you found this information helpful, I’d like to direct you to some additional resources! I have a variety of genre-based literature circle activities in my shop that are perfect for pairing with your independent reading. There’s also Book Speed Dating, Book Tasting, and a plethora of other post-reading activities that you can use with any novel.
One of the benefits of curating a classroom library is enhancing your class culture. You can read more about leveraging your classroom library in this post. I also have my teacher-curated, student-approved list of 100 YA novels to add to your classroom library available here.
What tips and tricks do you have for selecting age appropriate books for your students? Are there any resources that would be good to utilize? Any favorite accounts you follow on social media with great reader reviews? Fellow teachers with fabulous recommendations? If you need a place to start, I hang out on Facebook and Instagram with loads of fun recommendations, reviews, and resources.
Happy teaching!
