More than 6,000 leveled titles for grades 2-6 are featured, including both fiction and nonfiction—as well as popular series books and short story collections—and genres as diverse as realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, traditional literature, biography, and information books on a variety of content topics. Books are organized by title, by level of difficulty, and by genre to assist teachers not only in providing a range of quality texts in guided reading, but also in making recommendations for independent reading.

In addition to the book list itself, readers will also learn more about selecting and using books for different purposes in the literacy program and the process of "leveling" books—with many prototype descriptions for fiction and factual books at each level. Pinnell and Fountas offer a detailed explanation of the leveling process, advice on analyzing text characteristics as a foundation for teaching and using benchmark books to assess instructional levels for guided reading, along with separate chapters on how to select books and organize high-quality libraries in intermediate classrooms. There's also a full chapter on acquiring books and writing proposals to fund your efforts.