LibGuides: Education: Digital Writing Institute: Reader's Advisory

What is Reader's Advisory?

"Readers' Advisory" is a fancy librarian term for customized book recommendations.

Obviously, your local librarian-- school library media specialist or public librarian-- is a great place to get book recommendations for your classroom. You already get book recommendations from other teachers and professionals. Here are some tools those pros use to find books to support those recommendations.

NoveList K-8 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Provided through NJ State library; also available on jerseyclicks.org)
"Reader's Advisory" for fiction for kids and young teens; includes recommended reads, read-alikes, lexile and reading levels; browseable by grade level, genre and 'appeal' (tone). Useful in integrating fiction into the K-8 classroom.
NoveList This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Provided through the NJ State library and also available through jerseyclicks.org)
"Reader's Advisory" service for fiction, showing "read-alikes" for popular titles and sorting books by genre, 'appeal' and other elements; includes Lexile scores and reading levels for many.

Free or free-ish resources

Whichbook
Helps the reader find titles based on what sort of book they'd want to read, either by type factors or by character, plot, and setting. You set the sliders for the kind of book, Whichbook makes the recommendation. Primarily for adult and YA fiction.
What should I read next?
Just what it sounds like. A 'crowdsourced' (that is, users enter their favorite books in lists, and those that appear together most are recommended together) recommender. Enter the title and author of one item, see others.
WARNING: this site does allow authors to promote their books for pay, so unusual recommendations do occur!
Literature Map
What authors are most liked by people who like your favorite authors?
See a visual layout of similar authors when you enter an author's name.

Book-tracking Sites with Recommendations

Goodreads
Now owned by Amazon, this website's recommendations are powered by the commonalities between books recommended by people who like books similar to the ones you've listed. You can set up a profile and track your reading, then get recommendations based on it. Or use the Lists feature to see lists of books others have recommended.
Many authors and reviewers have sites on this site.
LibraryThing
This independent book catalog site allows you to track all the books you own (200 a year for free, or a cheaper option for a lifetime).
Even if you don't subscribe, though, you can check out any given title and see what LibraryThing users have identified as similar; or use the users' tag clouds to find similar works.

Library Guides

Education: Digital Writing Institute: Reader's Advisory

What is Reader's Advisory?