How to Choose Age Appropriate Books:

1. Scan the cover of potential books for a recommended age group. This is particularly
helpful for younger audiences, as most publishers of infant to preschool books will
label their books with a suggested age group.
2. Choose board books for babies or infants. These books are made from a hard
cardboard or plastic material and can withstand chewing or rough play. Look for
books that are colorful and feature large pictures or faces. Generally speaking, books
with paper pages are suitable for children ages 3 and older.
3. Get in a childrens book club.
4. Search for interactive books if your children are toddlers. These books will feature
flaps to lift, buttons to push, or activities the children can perform while reading. All
of these activities can further engage children in these books.
5. Review the educational content of the titles you're considering. Books suitable for
babies through toddlers should focus on core concepts such as the alphabet, basic
rhyming, emotions, colors, and so on. Books for older children should contain
subjects or characters that are interesting to them, such as a favorite animal or
character.
6. Choose familiar or favorite authors if you are purchasing a book for older children.
Many authors have books written in a series or similar subject matters or themes,
and choosing another title from their collection may be a safe bet.
7. Look at the classics. Look at classic authors.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Just William by Richmal Crompton.
The Adventures of Tintin by Herg.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling.
Little House on the Prairie by Laura-Ingalls Wilder.
Tracey Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Jungle Book by J. M. Barrie.
The Famous Five go adventuring again by Enid Blyton.
Allan Ahlberg.
Roald Dahl.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.
Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz.
8. Look at bestsellers lists.
9. Purchase award-winning titles if you aren't certain what might be most appealing.
Books that have won awards or are noted as best sellers mean they have been
recognized for their quality and content, and you can assume they are good choices.
The Red House Children's Book Awards.
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
The Chicken House Children's Fiction Awards.
10. Select books that deal with issues or situations that are relevant. If the recipients are
dealing with divorce, new siblings, friends, or other issues, look for titles that discuss
similar themes. Consider any major milestones children may be near, such as potty
training, teething, etiquette, school, and so on. Find books that can relate to these
situations.
11. Buy books that mix imagination with historical or science themes for older children.
Titles that start with a real concept, such as a historical event or a scientific fact, and
build an imaginary story around it may engage older readers. The fictional story may
spark interest in the concept.
How we can tell if the book is age appropriate?
i)Grade/ interest leve
lii) presentation of characters
iii)Context
iv)Illustration
v)Authors message

Benefits
Use of bibliotherapy to address childhood teasing and bullying is an innovative approach
school nurses should consider as they work to promote a healthy school environment.
Children's books serve as a unique conduit of exchange between parents, teachers, and
children. Bibliotherapy, using books to help people solve problems, involves three stages:
identification, catharsis, and insight. These stages lend themselves well to coping with the
sensitivities related to teasing and bullying. Salient research findings pertinent to teasing
and bullying have made their way into the children's literature and have been well received
by children and their families over the course of the Child Adolescent Teasing in Schools
(CATS) book review project and web site development. After exposure to a fictional story
about teasing and bullying, children have shared their own nonfictional account of this often
devastating experience and have come to develop successful coping strategies for dealing
with the teasing and bullying that takes place in schools nationwide.
Bibliotherapy
Used by educators to help students deal with transitions to difficult situations that may
occur in everyday life
What is Bibliotherapy?
Use literature (book) to heal childrens problem
To help younger students who are struggling with personal experiences that distract them
from their educational pursuits
a project indirect intervention that use literature for personal growth
(Shechtman & Or, 1996, 139)
The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science (2011) defines bibliotherapy as:
The use of books selected on the basis of content in a planned reading program designed to
facilitate the recovery of patients suffering from mental illness or emotional disturbance. Ideally, the
process occurs in three phases: personal identification of the reader with a particular character in
the recommended work, resulting in psychological catharsis, which leads to rational insight
concerning the relevance of the solution suggested in the text to the readers own experience.
Assistance of a trained psychotherapist is advised.

Why should a teacher use caution with bibliotherapy?
Because through bibliotheraphy, children can become sensitive, not only to their feelings,
but to others feeling as well. (Dan, p.211)
Children face considerable threats: drug use, gang violence, homelessness.
Right books can offer possible solutions to problems that create childrens inner turmoil.
Either emotionally well-adjusted or later suffer mental anguish.
What are some of the benefits of bibliotherapy?
Allowing readers to evaluate their own behaviour & emotions through the experiences of
the characters in the story.
Can influence both students behaviours and attitudes.
Change students perceptions of and behaviour toward students with disabilities in
classroom and school.
Empathize the others.
Encourage the students to reflect and enable them to communicate openly with others
about what they have read and make connections to their life experiences.
Children learn from problem-solving strategies modeled by characters in the book.
What are some strategies that you should utilize with bibliotherapy?
Research the facts: real info; half truths & lies will only destroy the credibility.
Be sensitive towards students self-problem or family problem, etc.
Use good timing: intro the book in appropriate time, students would able to fully explore
the issue in the story.
Integrated the topic or story
Addressing the concerns of children: discuss with them.

Mutual is used to describe a reciprocal relationship between two or more people or things.
Thus their mutual animosity means "their animosity for each other" or "the animosity
between them," and a mutual defence treaty is one in which each party agrees to come to
the defence of the other. But many people also use mutual to mean "shared in common," as
in the bill serves the mutual interests of management and labour. This usage is perhaps
most familiar in the expression our mutual friend, which was widespread even before
Charles Dickens used it as the title of a novel. While some language critics have objected to
this usage because it does not include the notion of reciprocity, it appears in the writing of
some of our greatest authors, including Shakespeare, Edmund Burke, George Eliot, and
James Joyce, and it continues to be used by well-respected writers today.
Mutuality is a huge part of bibliotherapy because it provides its readers with a connection to
the characters as well as the issues it discusses. A book that follows a character who is
perhaps more unique in comparison to their peers could also be excellent material to make
the child feel like they have something in common with someone even if it is just in a story.