Let’s Explore: Novelist K-8

Are you or your children in grades K-8 looking for your next great-read? Novelist K-8 provides reading recommendations for grades K-8. According to EBSCO, opens a new window, "our recommendations are crafted by experts in children's literature, and we let you know who wrote a recommendation and why the recommendation makes sense." Novelist has reading recommendations based on age, theme, genre, and appeal. Novelist defines appeal as "a way of determining why people enjoy the books they read." You can use Novelist's appeal terms to narrow your searches.

On the homepage is the basic search tool that can be used to perform searches by keyword, title, author, or series. There is also an advanced search tool to search for more than one search term and to refine the search by a variety of limiters to retrieve the best match. A great feature of Novelist K-8 is the Read-alikes feature. In the example below, I searched for the book, "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes". Novelist provides information about the book, including the name of the author and illustrator, the series title, genre, tone, grade level, Lexile level, accelerated reader level, and professional reviews of the book. Located on the right side of book's information is the read-alikes or books similar in writing style to the selected title.

Novelist has a Recommended Reads Lists section that is located on the left pane of the homepage and can be searched by age and theme. Novelist also has the ability to search for books based on accelerated reader levels and Lexile levels for books that are aligned with a local school's curriculum. Novelist also provides series information on books in a series that allows the user to locate the series name and the titles of the books in numerical order in the series.

For educators and librarians, the Quick Links tab at the top of the page gives book display ideas, books to movies information, curricular connections, genre outlines, and grab and go book lists. Do you need additional help in navigating the features of Novelist K-8? Use the How Do I? tab at the top of the homepage for frequently asked help topics. 

Novelist K-8 is a product of EBSCO, a leading provider of research databases, e-journals, magazine subscriptions, ebooks, and discovery services to libraries for more than 70 years. You can access Novelist K-8 from one of the St. Tammany Parish Library branches, or from home or a remote location using your St. Tammany Parish Library card. Explore your next great read with Novelist K-8 today!