Learning About the Library Adapted for West Hopkins School

Let’s learn about our Library! Arrangement of the media center Identify specific parts of a book and the information included in each part

Information Your task is to identify the different areas of our media center and explain what is found in each area. You will identify the following five parts of a book: spine, cover, author, illustrator and title.

West Hopkins School Media Center The Library at West Hopkins School is arranged in four sections*: Easy (Picture Books) Fiction Fiction (Chapter Books) Non-fiction (Information Books) Biography *most have a reference section too; ours is located downstairs in the library.

Parts of a book Each book in the library has many parts. You will learn five parts and words today: spine cover author illustrator title

The spine of a book The spine of a book is the part that you see when the book is on the shelf, and other books are along side your book. The spine of a book helps hold your book together and keep it strong just like the spine in your body does!

Here is one human spine and four book spines

The cover of a book The cover is the outside of a book. There is usually a front cover, a back cover, and the part in between them called the spine. pages Front Cover spine

Here’s the cover of a picture book that is very popular.

Table of contents This is an example of a table of contents in a book.

Other pages you know . . . The Table of Contents is at the beginning of a book If there is an index, it is at the back of the book A glossary is at the back of the book too, and tells you what words in the book mean.

This is an index from a book. It is a lot like a table of contents The index tells you what pages you find each topic or subject on

Glossary A glossary gives the definitions of The words used in the book

Who is the author? The author is the person who writes the story. The author writes the words of a story. Sometimes the author draws the pictures too – then you say the person is the author and illustrator. The author always writes the words.

The author writes the words of the story Marc Brown is the author of this Arthur book. He wrote the words of the stories.

The Illustrator draws the pictures in a book. The illustrator is the person that draws the pictures in a story book. Sometimes there are pictures on every page, and they tell a big part of the story. The person that draws them is the illustrator.

The Illustrator draws the pictures This book is illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi (He won an award for the drawings!)

The title is the name of the story. The title is usually on the front cover of the book and on the spine. The title is on a page called The Title Page right before the beginning of the story. Authors usually choose the title for their book, since they write the words!

The title (name) of this book is The Spider and the Fly (this is a picture of the front cover)

You have learned five book parts and words about books! The spine The cover The author The illustrator The title

Now it’s time to talk about the parts of your library! The library in your school is arranged in four sections: Easy (Picture Books) Fiction Fiction (Chapter Books) Non-fiction (Information Books) Biography

Picture Book Section The first section is called Picture Books. This section is fiction.

Picture Books Picture books use illustrations (pictures) to tell lots of the story. The illustrations in picture books sometimes tell different parts of the story than the words do. Illustrations are very, very important in picture books. Sometimes they are even more important than the words! Picture books are ‘made-up’ stories from the authors’ imagination.

Picture book example This is a made-up story with lots of pictures. The pictures are a very important part of the story.

Chapter Book Section Another section is called Chapter Books. This section is fiction.

Chapter Books Chapter Books usually have more words than picture books, and fewer pictures. In chapter books, the words are more important for the story than the pictures are. Chapter books usually have more words on each page than picture books do, and the story is long. Chapter books are ‘made-up’ stories (fiction).

Non-fiction (Information) Section The third section is Non-Fiction Books (also called Information Books)

Non-Fiction / Information Books Non-Fiction (Information) books are stories that tell about things that are real. Non-Fiction books have real places and real things in them. Non-Fiction can be about people, about places, about things – they can be history, or geography, crafts, sports, weather, science fair projects, even dinosaurs . . .

Read this to practice Non-Fiction (Information) books are stories that tell about things that are real. Non-Fiction can be about people, about places, about things – they can be history, or geography, crafts, sports, weather, science fair projects, even dinosaurs . . .

Biography Section The fourth section is called Biographies. Biographies are a kind of non-fiction.

Biographies Biographies are about real people. Biographies tell about the life of a person that lived in the past or even one that lives now. Biographies are true, and they are about real people, not made-up characters.

Biography example This is a biography about a real person. (Michael Jordon)

You have learned about: The arrangement of the library and the books in each section: picture books (fiction), chapter books (fiction), non-fiction, and biographies Title, Spine, Cover, and Author, and Illustrator

Keep up the good work! When you come to the library next time, you’ll know where to look for each type of book. You’ll be able to find the books you want too, by knowing where to look!

Congratulations! You have completed this lesson! Information obtained from PowerPoint created by Claudette Curl. Retrieved from www.libraryinstruction.com on June 20, 2006.