Adventuring With Books: A Booklist for Pre-K-Grade 6

Roser, Nancy L., Jensen, Julie M.

Adventuring with Books offers annotations for approximately 1,800 books for children in preschool through grade six published between 1988 and 1992. They are arranged in 13 chapters, such as "Biography," "Contemporary Realistic Fiction," "Fine Arts," "Historical Fiction," and "Sciences and Mathematics," with many subcategories. Many books could have been assigned to more than one chapter, according to the editors; however, no cross-references are made. Each entry notes author, title, illustrator, and honors/awards, where applicable. Entries note an interest level, ascertained by the publisher or assigned by the reviewers. Annotations summarize the story or content and, in some instances, comment on the illustrations. References to related books, books by the same author, and books on similar subjects areas are noted. Following the entries, there are indexes of awards, authors, illustrators, subjects, and titles, and a directory of publishers. Illustrations of several hundred book jackets are provided.

A comparable resource is Wilson's Children's Catalog and its supplements, which list far more books. Best Books for Children: Pre-School through Grade 6, by John T. Gillespie and Corinne J. Naden (4th ed., Bowker, 1990), includes over 11,000 books categorized by subject, but its annotations are only one sentence in length and coverage isn't as current. Adventuring with Books, although far from exhaustive, is an affordable resource for the teacher, parent, and librarian. This is an inexpensive purchase for any elementary school or public library.