Sacramento, CA
Shiane Daima Jacocks
Just in time for summer reading, the California Department of Education (DOE) has added 285 award-winning titles to its Recommended Literature: Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve list, which includes over 8,000 recommended titles for children and teens.
The list was developed with the assistance of teachers, library media teachers employed by schools and public libraries, administrators, curriculum planners, and parents. According to the California DOE, thousands of selections were reviewed before the list was finalized.
Along with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, new additions to the online list include stories about diverse people and lifestyles, as well as works by multilingual authors.
The list is an online database that helps students, teachers, and families find reading material that entertains, informs, and explores new ideas. Its selections are based on a variety of criteria that include, but are not limited to: grade level, topic, genre, and culture. For each book, there is an annotation describing the book to help viewers make selections.
Children and teens yearn for more contemporary literature that is pertinent to their lives and curiosity. Experts believe when students have access to reading material they enjoy, they can discover more about themselves.
Literature in the interactive database may be searched by author, title, annotation, illustrator, translator, subject, grade level, or language. For more information, visit http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/rl/index/asp.