Intro Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast focused solely on middle grade readers and to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect them to books they will love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two daughters, and attending the Rochester Children’s Book Festival on November 12th! So if you are going to be there, let me know so we can connect.   This is Episode #10 and Today we’re continuing our conversation about common classroom library mistakes (and how to fix them), talking about three novels with surprising twists, and I’ll answer a question about how to help a young reader who buys a lot of books but never finishes them.   Main Topic - Common Classroom Library Mistakes (And How to Fix Them) - Part 2 Having a vibrant collection of books on hand for children to choose from is so crucial to fostering a love of reading. And more and more teachers, like I did, are discovering just how important it is to have a classroom library. And although today’s discussion is angled more toward teachers, there’s lots to take away for parents, librarians, or anyone who wants to get books into kids’ hands. In our last episode, we discussed six common mistakes that can happen when you are building a classroom library. And today we are discussing 6 more pitfalls - and again - every single one is a mistake that I have made. So - I’m only throwing myself under the bus!  If you missed that episode please scroll back through your feed to find episode #9, but I’ll give a brief recap: #1 - Not getting rid of old books. #2 - Not having an easy check-out system.   #3 - Not changing how books are displayed #4 - Not having enough non-fiction #5 - Not having a clear organizational system #6 - Not having student input into what books are included in the library   So now, we’ll jump back in!   #7 - Not having the second book in a series There are few things more frustrating as a reader than finishing a book on a cliffhanger and having to WAIT to get your hands on that second book.  There’s also no more exciting thing than that anticipation! But… if you want readers to delve deeply into a series or make a connection with an author, it helps to have some of the next books available. I think that’s especially important when a more picky reader finally finds a series that they like. You really want to keep that momentum going and get them into that next book quickly before their enthusiasm wanes or they forget parts of the plot. I’m not saying you have to have EVERY single book in a series, but at least the first few of popular ones like Warriors, Dork Diaries, or the Percy Jackson series are good to have on hand. #8 - Not having enough diversity This is so, so important. And always has been, but finally there’s more attention being paid to this issue now. I started to ask myself, Does my classroom library reflect not only the students in my school but also the wider world? Will they find characters like themselves in those pages? And will they be the main character and not just the sidekick.  Diversity can take so many forms: race, ethnicity, gender, family structure, religious views, gender identity, and disability (which is such a broad term but encompasses so many things from physical and cognitive disabilities to addiction). Campaigns like #WeNeedDiverseBooks and websites like disabilityinkidlit.com help keep the conversation going and provide resources and recommendations. One enlightening thing you can do with your students is to have THEM analyze the diversity in the classroom library. There’s a phenomenal blog post from Jess at Crawling Out of the Classroom with complete instructions and downloadable tally sheets you can use to make this really easy if you want to give it a try. I’ll put a link in the shownotes for you but I am definitely doing that this year. I think it will be eye-opening for me, and eye-opening for my students. #9 - Not having anything other than books I’ll say up front that I am still working