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Organizing children’s books for young children: A simple category method
By Jennifer 
November 06, 2009
November 06, 2009
We have a lot of children's books. Jeremiah and I are each borderline bibliophiles. When we moved to Texas from San Francisco we shipped back 37 boxes of books. Thirty-seven. We've since pared down our personal collection to books that we love and absolutely must own but they still over-fill a wall-sized bookshelf.
We seem to be passing on our love of books to Z. Through a combination of books collected from library sales ($20 for a paper bag full!), used book stores, and gifts, we've filled a bookcase for Z. The great majority of these books are actually age-appropriate for her now - we do have limited space so we tend to not buy books that she isn't yet ready to read. As freeschoolers (we homeschool Z but don't use a curriculum), we want our daughter to have access to a wide variety of books and these books have basically replaced our curriculum purchase. (And yes, we do make heavy use of our local library as well.)
About a month ago, we cleaned our her bookcase and got rid of books she's too old for now or that ended up not holding any of our attention. While we were doing this, we started to try to organize her books. We wanted a way to easily find a few broad categories of books, with a visual cue that made it easy to select a book based on a broad type of book Z or we wanted to read or look at, particularly for narrow-spined paperbacks that can easily get lost on a bookshelf. We had an interesting time figuring out what those categories might be for a five-year-old and the way they use books. Ultimately, we selected categories based not on traditional topic categories but on the kinds of books we'd like for her and us to be able to quickly access when we're looking for something to read together or when she is browsing alone. We ended up with four functional categories to label, with the remaining books left unmarked. This required some discipline, because I've always had a fetish for book organization. But we didn't want to create a system that existed for its own sake, or that built up walls between areas of exploration. The categories we selected are:
We know ourselves well enough to know that we won't put them back in the proper section if we tried to divide them by areas of the bookshelves (and what happens when a book is too large to fit in a particular section?) so we decided to put colored stickers on the spine. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of marking a book this way but Jeremiah convinced me it was okay because most of them aren't collectibles.
Notice how well the stickers help identify book categories in narrow paperbacks!
Tiny books were placed in a box of their own and tall books are on top of the shelf with bookends.
The problem now, which you may have noticed in some of the above photos, is that the stickers that we used - simple round stickers from the office supply store are peeling up and then they come off or stick to other books and have the potential to create chaos in our system. We may tape them down or we may seek out stickier stickers. But we're pleased with the overall concept and think it will help Z as she begins to explore books more and more on her own, in addition to the daily reading we do together.
If you have a large collection of children's books, do you organize them in any way? How do you keep them organized, or otherwise make sure that in a large collection, good books get noticed and children have access to what they want to read?
We seem to be passing on our love of books to Z. Through a combination of books collected from library sales ($20 for a paper bag full!), used book stores, and gifts, we've filled a bookcase for Z. The great majority of these books are actually age-appropriate for her now - we do have limited space so we tend to not buy books that she isn't yet ready to read. As freeschoolers (we homeschool Z but don't use a curriculum), we want our daughter to have access to a wide variety of books and these books have basically replaced our curriculum purchase. (And yes, we do make heavy use of our local library as well.)
About a month ago, we cleaned our her bookcase and got rid of books she's too old for now or that ended up not holding any of our attention. While we were doing this, we started to try to organize her books. We wanted a way to easily find a few broad categories of books, with a visual cue that made it easy to select a book based on a broad type of book Z or we wanted to read or look at, particularly for narrow-spined paperbacks that can easily get lost on a bookshelf. We had an interesting time figuring out what those categories might be for a five-year-old and the way they use books. Ultimately, we selected categories based not on traditional topic categories but on the kinds of books we'd like for her and us to be able to quickly access when we're looking for something to read together or when she is browsing alone. We ended up with four functional categories to label, with the remaining books left unmarked. This required some discipline, because I've always had a fetish for book organization. But we didn't want to create a system that existed for its own sake, or that built up walls between areas of exploration. The categories we selected are:
- Science books: Nonfiction books dealing with science topics, at varying levels of complexity. Many of the Let's Read and Find Out series here.
- Math books: Fiction and nonfiction that introduces simple math concepts, ranging from counting and numbers to books about addition, multiplication, and money.
- First readers: Z is rapidly learning to read and we identified books she might have the most success with during reading sessions and solo attempts over the next several months.
- Seasonal books: Books that are steeped in a particular season of the year. A lot of the early grade science we currently do revolves around observing and interacting with the natural world, and the seasons play a large and obvious role in that, so we try to keep relevant seasonal books in the mix for our family reading. Geography and the earth-sun relationship are also natural topics to explore in this area.
We know ourselves well enough to know that we won't put them back in the proper section if we tried to divide them by areas of the bookshelves (and what happens when a book is too large to fit in a particular section?) so we decided to put colored stickers on the spine. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of marking a book this way but Jeremiah convinced me it was okay because most of them aren't collectibles.
Notice how well the stickers help identify book categories in narrow paperbacks!
Tiny books were placed in a box of their own and tall books are on top of the shelf with bookends.
The problem now, which you may have noticed in some of the above photos, is that the stickers that we used - simple round stickers from the office supply store are peeling up and then they come off or stick to other books and have the potential to create chaos in our system. We may tape them down or we may seek out stickier stickers. But we're pleased with the overall concept and think it will help Z as she begins to explore books more and more on her own, in addition to the daily reading we do together.
If you have a large collection of children's books, do you organize them in any way? How do you keep them organized, or otherwise make sure that in a large collection, good books get noticed and children have access to what they want to read?
Categories:
kids' books and audio stories, organizing
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This is a great idea!! From the first baby shower we had, we asked for books - so we have quite a collection for our 2 year old daughter already. The only organization we need right now is: lowest shelf - board books and books with buttons, flaps, tactile pages, etc. that she can handle by herself. The rest are pretty much hardcover picture/story books and they are just by size now to look nice. With her, we found it’s easier to take out 6 or so books and put them on the fireplace hearth so she can explore them. We change them out every few days. This has really worked out well for us - with the rotation it’s fun to see which books are old favorites or ones she remembers.
My mom taught kindergarten for many years, and used an almost identical system to yours. She also put a more “descriptive” sticker on the lower left front corner (types of animals, specific seasons, etc) and then covered the spine and corner stickers with a piece of tape.
I have a mental block against putting anything on books (stickers), writing in books, etc. I know that means our large collection of books is usually in chaos, but it’s also fun because if a book gets “lost” for a little while, we have fun rediscovering it.
My only rule is that we keep the books on the bookshelf as much as possible when they’re not being used so that they don’t get torn up. Occasionally, I got through and organize them, but I usually do it by size so that they stand up on the shelf.
Not much of a system, I know, but it works for us!
thanks this very helpful and timely, we have a ton of books, its like i cant bear the thought of my children missing out on a book. now that my son is reading well and we have a toddler so i am struggling to keep challenging books on the shelves with out getting rid of the post-board pre-reading books, she will need soon.
What about paint?
We have well over 300 children’s books and there isn’t any sort of system to organize them. I have two daugthers and they each have book shelves in their rooms. We also have a book shelf in the main living area of our home. The girls like to look at the books in their room during nap time/quite time and then of course they are constantly pulling books out throughout the course of the day to look through, so about every two weeks I rotate the books between rooms just to mix things up. I’ve also found that sometimes stacking the books into piles on the shelves is easier for them to have access to, especially for the thin paperback books. They just pull out a stack and sit beside it on the floor and look through each book that way.
I need to take on this exact task, moving board books and lower level books from my daughter’s room to her brother’s.
I purchased some cardboard magazine files that fit perfectly on her bookshelf (the IKEA Expedit shelf). I use these for the small paperback early readers. Though they are a bit expensive and I may start cutting down some cereal boxes to organize books.
Though I am such a perfectionist that cereal boxes may not be uniform enough for me!
I do like to keep books by the same author together.
When she brings home books from her school library, they often have a sticker on the edge depicting the theme (I think a lot are holidays). They have a symbol making them easy for a child to identify. I wonder if these stickers are available from a school supply store.
What I would really like to do is take each and every book off the shelf and begin reading them one by one. And then only the ones we love get placed back on the bookshelf. And other can be donated or passed along. But that’s a lot of reading!