This book list is intended for use in the instruction of children in grades K–3. We include a sampling of books at the grade 4 level because some children may need the challenge of advanced books At the same time, third-grade teachers may find the second-grade list useful for readers who need greater support. Within any classroom, teachers encounter the challenge of matching books to a wide range of readers who reflect varying levels of reading ability. We wrote Matching Books to Readers to help you make these critical instructional decisions.

This book list is designed to support primary-level guided, independent, and home reading. Many other books will be part of a rich classroom literacy program—books to read aloud, books to support research and investigation, and books for wide reading and in-depth discussion. We think of book collections in schools and classrooms as continually evolving. As with any precious collection, you think carefully about each addition and you discard items that have not proved their value. The books in this list are organized in a gradient of difficulty for particular purposes. Our goal is to support teachers in finding "just right" texts for readers. When developing readers are matched with the right book, they extend and refine their reading abilities as they read.

The books we suggest are listed at an appropriate level for children to read in guided-reading groups. What does this mean for you and your children? To make each book more accessible, you will carefully select and introduce it. Your children will read the book and, with your support, learn how to solve a few problems. The same book is probably too difficult for the child to pick up on his own and read independently. A lower-level book may be more appropriate for independent and home reading.

We have included many sets of books and series books because they are designed to support early readers along a progression of difficulty. We also have included many trade books because we want quality children’s literature to be as much a part of guided reading as possible as children become more proficient readers. We place value on variety. Where appropriate we have included many different kinds of texts—simple one-sentence caption books, realistic narratives, informational books, folktales, and fairy tales. The longer books for more experienced readers involve character development and more complex episodes over several chapters.

Our list of individual titles comes from a variety of publishers. Rather than simply ordering sets, you need to choose each title critically from those available on the market. Every publisher has some high-quality books and others of less quality (or at least less appropriate for guided-reading purposes). Also, some high-quality books may be excellent for other purposes, such as reading aloud or literature discussion, but do not meet the needs of children in guided- reading groups.

The ten chapters that precede the list are designed to assist you in using the list as a support for instruction. In the first chapter, we provide a rationale for matching books to readers, and in Chapter 2 we discuss the role of leveled books within a balanced literacy program. Children become literate as they participate in a wide range of learning contexts. Reading books at appropriate instructional levels is essential to support learning. For your own collection, you may want to include additional books not on this list. In Chapter 3 we present the concept of a leveled collection, along with a general description of characteristics to consider when leveling books. Chapter 4 provides comparisons of the structure of this book list with other leveled systems, including basal reading systems. We present equivalent levels for several different reading systems. We also describe benchmarks and how to coordinate them with the leveled reading collection to create a rigorous assessment system.

In Chapter 5 we describe how to use a leveled book collection to support guided reading, which entails small-group instruction for children who exhibit similar reading behaviors. In Chapters 6 and 7 we focus on organizing and using book collections. We provide estimates for the numbers of books needed and the costs of classroom collections at each grade level. We provide the same information for a school book collection. We also describe the organization and use of a school book room.

In Chapters 8 and 9 we focus on acquiring more books. In Chapter 8, we describe a variety of ways to increase the book collection for a classroom or school. In Chapter 9, we provide specific guidance for writing proposals for grants to support your collection. Finally, Chapter 10 provides a description of how this list is organized, including level-by-level descriptions of the characteristics of text. The Appendices for this book provide ordering information, including lists of publishers and addresses, as well as a response sheet for teacher feedback on books and future testing of books in classrooms.