Find just the right book for every reader. Use the links below to start your search, or get ideas from our book lists!
Search the Catalog for books, audiobooks, movies, and music!
Award Winning Books
The 2022 award winners have been announced! See lists of the finest books published each year:
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- Caldecott (official website)
- Newbery (official website)
- 2022 Youth Media Award winners announcement
- Charlotte Zolotow Award, administered by the Wisconsin CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center)
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Contemporary Topics
To help teach children about the pandemic and what is happening in the world, here is a list of books in our collection about Covid-19:
Here are lists of the books in our collection about global experiences:
- Black Lives Matter Picture Books
- Black Lives Matter Chapter Books
- Black Biographies
- Own Voices: Asian Voices (books featuring Asian characters by Asian authors)
- Own Voices: Indigenous Voices (books featuring Indigenous characters by Indigenous authors)
- Own Voices: Latino Voices (books featuring Latino characters by Latino authors)
As a community that embraces the responsibility connecting young readers with books, librarians nationwide are seeking out and sharing books about the Black experience. Below are some lists to start with:
- Black Experiences: Affirmation and Resilience, Activism and Resistance in 45 Books for PreK-Grade 12
- Black Joy Booklist
- We Are Kidlit Collective Summer Reading Lists (focusing on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)
- Race and Racism: Selected Books for PreK-Grade 12
Kids’ Choice Award
Every school year, kids in grades 4, 5, and 6 throughout Waukesha and Jefferson counties are encouraged to read 15 titles, all nominated by their peers during the previous years Kids’ Choice. The books range in reading level, subject and target audience. The books are available all school year at Pauline Haass Public Library and at the school libraries. Voting for favorites of the year happens in the spring, from mid-February to mid-March. Every three books read earns one vote for top book of the year AND a chance to recommend new books that could make it into Kids’ Choice next year!
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- See this year’s nominee’s and cast your votes here!
- Kids’ Choice Winners Through the Years
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Summer Reading
See the annual summer reading lists provided by ALSC (Association of Library Services to Children):
Our Staff Recommends: Picture Books and Easy Readers
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- ABC’s
- Award Winning Picture Books
- Be Your Best Self! (books about being true to yourself and being a good friend)
- Becoming a Big Kid
- Black Lives Matter
- Boo! Monsterously Good Picture Books
- Books on Faith
- Celebrations! Spring 2023
- Celebrations! Winter 2022-2023
- Characters that Grow with You
- Coping with Death and Loss
- Counting 1-10
- Covid-19
- Dealing with the Worries (books about anxiety)
- Dinosaur Books for Toddlers
- Dinosaur Books for Preschool and up
- Emotions
- Free to Be (books about gender identity and expression)
- Free to Be (books about having a LGBTQIA family)
- Gardening
- Habitats (a list of books and digital apps!)
- How to (funny instruction books)
- Interactive Picture Books (touch, press, shake!)
- International Picture Books
- Just Sweet Books
- Learning Compassion
- New Baby! (Becoming a Sibling)
- Night Hike
- Opposites
- Own Voices: Asian Voices (books featuring Asian characters by Asian authors)
- Own Voices: Indigenous Voices (books featuring Indigenous characters by Indigenous authors)
- Own Voices: Latino Voices (books featuring Latino characters by Latino authors)
- Princess and Anti-Princess
- School
- Sing Along
- Stories about Medical Conditions
- Things that Go
- Too Funny!
- Using the Potty
- Wonderfully Wordless
- We Both Read (Easy Readers)
- Wisconsin Connections (E)
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Our Staff Recommends: Chapter Books
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- Animal Universe Stories
- Anxiety
- Award Winning Chapter Books
- Beginning Fiction Action! Adventure! Survival!
- Beginning Fiction Animal Lovers
- Beginning Chapter Book Series
- Beginning Fiction LOL
- Beginning Fiction Magical books
- Beginning Fiction Monsters! Aliens! Run!
- Beginning Fiction Mysteries
- Beginning Fiction Realistic Fiction
- Black Lives Matter
- Body Positivity!
- Booklist Magazine’s Best Middle Grade Novels of the 21st Century
- Budding Activists
- Cats
- Classic Reads
- Coping with Death and Loss
- Dinosaurs
- Dogs
- Dragons
- Fairies
- Fractured Fairy Tales
- Free to Be (books featuring LGBTQA+ characters)
- Friendship
- Funny Fusions (hybrids between chapter books and graphic novels!)
- Global Folklore
- Graphic Novels for Kindergarten-3rd Grade
- Great Chapter Read Alouds
- Historical Fiction prior to 1930
- Historical Fiction 1930-2000’s
- Historical: World War II
- Historical Graphic Novels
- Horses
- Kids’ Choice Winners Through the Years
- Magical Books for Those Not Ready for Harry Potter
- Magical Realism
- Mysteries
- Novels in Verse
- Own Voices: Asian Voices (books featuring Asian characters by Asian authors)
- Own Voices: Indigenous Voices (books featuring Indigenous characters by Indigenous authors)
- Own Voices: Latino Voices (books featuring Latino characters by Latino authors)
- Picture books for Older Readers
- Portals to New Worlds
- Read Your Book and Watch it too (books turned into movies and shows)
- Realistic Fiction featuring Boys
- Realistic Fiction featuring Girls
- Realistic Fiction Series featuring Girls
- Scary Stories
- Short Stories
- Sports Fiction
- Stories about Medical Conditions
- Summer Camp
- Wanderlust (books set around the globe)
- What to Read if You Loved Harry Potter
- What to Read if You Loved Percy Jackson
- What to Read if You Loved Wonder
- Wisconsin Connections (JF)
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Our Staff Recommends: Biographies
Our Staff Recommends: Apps for Kids
Even More Great Ideas: Reading Lists from the Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC).
The Association of Library Services to Children offers more book lists that can be accessed on their website. These include book lists such as Graphic Novel Reading Lists, Summer Reading Lists for different grade ranges featuring new and exciting titles and Tough Topics Lists for different age ranges featuring books that deal with various tough topics, along with parent guides for each age group featuring books, websites and more for how to help your children through tough times.