For many years, Fountas and Pinnell have described how to analyze the characteristics of texts and select just-right books to use for guided reading instruction. All of their thinking and research has been brought together into Leveled Books, K-8 to form the ultimate guide to choosing and using books from kindergarten through middle school.

Leveled Books, K-8 is for the K-8 teacher looking for information on how to select and use leveled books for different purposes in their literacy programs.

Using prototype descriptions of fiction and nonfiction books at each level, Fountas and Pinnell offer advice on:

• The role of leveled books in reading instruction
• Analyzing the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction texts
• Using benchmark books to assess instructional levels for guided reading
• Selecting books for both guided and independent reading
• Organizing high-quality classroom libraries
• Acquiring books and writing proposals to fund classroom library purchases
• Creating a school book room.

In this resource, teachers learn how to how to level books for themselves through detailed background information about the F&P Text Level Gradient (™). This background information is then used to help teachers match readers to texts, which leads to a presentation of a picture of comprehensive approaches to language and literacy teaching, kindergarten through grade eight.