Upper Fiction Book Series

Our media center is set up so that students can easily browse for books that they want to read and are able to read independently.  One of the sections in our media center houses our upper fiction chapter books, many just call these chapter books.  These are books that are 150 or more pages and are usually a higher reading level.  Students in our school typically start reading books in this section in late second grade to beginning of third.

These books are placed on the shelf in alphabetical order by author's last name, but to make locating a book even easier, I use Demco book stops to label the series, if we have at least 3 books in a series.  Since I began using book stops, students are much more independent when they are looking for books, which helps when I am stuck behind the circulation desk.

The books in our upper fiction chapter book section often become super popular and are moved to the Wildcat Favorites section.   (see the post about Wildcat Favorites HERE)  This is a current list of the series books that are in the upper fiction chapter books in our media center:

Amber Brown
Humphrey
Judy Blume
Agent Amelia
Fizzopolis
Beverly Cleary
Andrew Clements
Land of Stories
Bruce Coville
Road Dahl
School of Fear
Lemonade War
Dear America
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Hank the Cowdog
Sugar Plum Ballerinas
Lemoncello's Library
Crime Biters
Million Dollar
Cupcake Cousins
Sleuth or Dare
Seekers
Melonhead
Lucy Rose
Gordan Korman
Swindle
Platypus Police Squad
Guardians of Ga'hoole
Chronicles of Narnina
Warped and Creepy Tales of Weenies
The Sisters Club
Julia Gillian
Marty McGuire
Silver Jaguar Society
Ranger in Time
Upside Down Magic
Twintuition
Fablehaven
Boys vs Girls
Shiloh
The Resisters
My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish
Confectionately Yours
Timmy Failure
Jacky Haha
Clementine
Bowers and Birdie
Stories from Sideways School
Charmed Life
Time Warp Trio
Storm Runners
Encyclopedia Brown
How to Beat the Bully
Eleanor
Geronimo Stilton
Justin Case
Boxcar Children
Stick Dog
Stick Cat
Little House on the Prarire
Ghost Buddy
Hank Zipzer
DC Superhero Girls

What upper chapter book series do you have in your library media center?

Favorite Book Series for Young Readers

Our media center is set up so that students can easily browse for books that they want to read and are able to read independently.

One of the sections in our media center houses our picture books (both fiction and nonfiction) that are on a K and 1st grade reading level. 

These are books that are marked with a large paw print (like our Wildcat Favorites) and then a small paw print on top. This section is where kindergarten begins browsing the shelves for the first time, but all grade levels still love to get books from this section.  And why wouldn't they? These are the books that most likely got them to fall in love with books.

These books are placed on the shelf in alphabetical order by author's last name, but occasionally I will place them on top of the shelf on a smaller "spotlight" shelf and may eventually make their way to the Wildcat Favorites section.  (see the post about Wildcat Favorites HERE)

To make locating a book even easier, I use Demco book stops to label the series, if we have at least 3 books in a series.  Since I began using book stops, students are much more independent when they are looking for books, which helps when I am stuck behind the circulation desk.

This is a current list of the fiction series books that are in the Junior Wildcat section in our media center:

Fly Guy
Biscuit
Berenstain Bears
Clifford
Arthur
Bad Kitty (picture books)
Eric Carle
Curious George
Lllama Llama
Mia
Amelia Bedelia
Pete the Cat
Pigeon
Margaret Hillert
Little Critter
Truck Town
Spongebob
Star Wars
Seuss
Elephant and Piggie

What popular series do you have for your littles to read?  Do you have a special section for those books?

Media Center Organizational Ideas for Non-fiction and Fiction Sections

Just a quick post of some organizational ideas I use in my Media Center.

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I recently purchased a big batch of these babies to help organize the non-fiction section a little bit better and to give better signage for the lower readers.

I then went through each non-fiction section and used the book-stops to separate subject categories and added a label to make it easy to spot those books.

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I created a non-fiction book helper based on this product from Kathryn Garcia so that my book-stops have the same pictures as my non-fiction helpers.  I did purchase this product, but realized after a few weeks, I needed to customize it based on the most popular non-fiction sections of my Media Center.

Since adding these labels and introducing the non-fiction helpers, I have seen an increase in non-fiction check outs, even from the younger students.  And I've had a decrease in questions like "Where are the basketball books?  Where are the snake books?  Where are the books about planets?"  It has been a sanity saver.  Kathryn really is a genius for thinking this one up. Stop on by her TpT store and check it out. She has lots of other great library products, too.

In our fiction area, we have a lot of books in a series, but not all of them are numbered on the spine, or the numbers are rubbing off.  I have a lot of students who like to read books in a series in order.  Sometimes it really does matter if you skip a book.  I wanted to come up with a uniform way to label books in a series.

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So I purchased some of these little fellas. Well, just the white ones, and in 1/4" size.

I didn't want to crowd up the spine with a larger label, so these small circle dots work perfect.  I wrote down the series number of the book, and adhered it to the spine of the book.  Now all of our books in a series are numbered and patrons are happy to be able to find the next book in their favorite series.  It also helps make shelving easier.

Do you number books in a series?  If so, what method or types of labels do you use?  Do you have any special organizational tips to share?