The Book Whisperer (23 page)

How to set up a library like ours may be of some use or interest to you, but the nuts and bolts of library care are secondary to the library questions “Which books do you recommend?” and “What are some of the books that your students like to read?” Although I endorse any student-selected reading material, I am extremely selective about which titles I stock in the classroom library. Space is limited, and I prefer to use the space we have to offer a wide variety of books. In addition, it is my responsibility, not just as a teacher but as a more knowledgeable reader, to lead my students to books that are rich with good writing and well-regarded by reviewers or other readers.

If students' tastes run toward books that have dubious literary merit, they can find these on their own; I cannot pander to their tastes by filling our library with junky books. Is the writing good, or is it schlock? Does the book have interesting social themes, historical information, or language? Award winners, beloved favorites, and books by acclaimed authors dominate our collection. We have few movie, television show, or video game tie-ins in our library; the same goes for series that are basically the same book over and over. I also limit the number of books that reflect popular trends or that are time-sensitive titles like books of lists. The books in our library need to last a long time, and ephemeral pop trends or titles with a short shelf life are luxuries.

There are no adult fiction books in the library, either, even though some of my sixth graders could read them. Eric read Robert Louis Stevenson's horror classic
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
, and then moved on to Michael Crichton's adventures
Jurassic Park
and
The Lost World
. Michelle is slowly making her way through her mother's favorite,
Jane Eyre
. I support advanced readers as much as my developing ones, but I am careful about the line between support and providing adult reading materials to eleven-year-olds. Just because a gifted reader can read more advanced texts does not mean that they are emotionally ready for adult themes and issues. This is not my decision to make; it is a parent's decision. Gifted readers should read fiction close to their age level and nonfiction at their advanced reading level (Halsted, 2002). In keeping with this principle, I have gathered college textbooks and adult nonfiction texts on a variety of topics of interest to my students, but I limit the fiction offerings to what is age-appropriate.

The majority of the book choices for our library grow from my own reading experiences and continual recommendations from my network of teachers, librarians, friends, and students. I try to read every book before I place it in the library. Reading a book every few days over summers and holidays, and one book a week during the school year, I rack up about a hundred books a year. Occasionally, I will add an unread book to the library, but only if I have read something else by the author. And I add it to my reading list as soon as possible.

I
COULD USE my diverse knowledge of books to create a list for you that would make a killer library. Lord knows a bibliophile like me could spend blissful hours composing it. (It would be an extreme version of the desert island-game!) But in keeping with my beliefs that my students run the reading show in every way possible, I have asked them to create a list for you of the books every teacher, grades five through eight, should have in their class library. I tried to set one hundred books as an arbitrary number for the list, but my students kept those titles coming! Because this list reflects the interests and tastes of real students today, you may not see your favorite authors or treasured books here. Remember item 10 in Pennac's
The Rights of the Reader
: the right not to defend your tastes.

These books are the books the children like to read, not those that a teacher chose for them. I made no attempt to balance reading levels, genres, or topics. The third column of the table indicates titles that have a sequel or are the first in a series. You could expand your library by adding the subsequent titles. Once your students are hooked on a series, they will want to read the rest.