Every year the state of Illinois has book award lists that are chosen by Illinois students. They are The Monarch books for K-3, The Bluestem books for 3rd-5th grades and the Rebecca Caudill for 4th-8th grades. The following are the current year's lists. Enjoy!
Monarch Book List
Bluestem Book List
Rebecca Caudill Book List
Every week each grade in the grade school has a 20 minute or 30 minute library lesson and book checkout. Pre-K through 1st grade have a story read to them and 2nd through 4th grades have library basic skills lessons. These include how to find fiction and non-fiction books as well as author studies and genre studies. 5th and 6th graders learn how to write a paper in proper MLA style so they can avoid problems with plagiarism.
Students in Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grades check out 1 book per week, 2nd grade checks out 2 books per week and 3rd through 6th grades check out 3 books per week. If a student has an overdue book they are not allowed to check out another book until the overdue book is returned, or if lost, paid for.
Our library has over 12,000 books, including a very solid collection of both non-fiction and fiction. We also have a great collection of easy-fiction which are for emerging readers. They are short chapter books with pictures on occasional pages.