Analyzing Book Quality - NoveList Plus
NoveList Plus is a wonderful tool to use to analyze book quality and write a rationale for why a book is appropriate and aligned with your context. For general support with Novelist Plus, including help videos, visit the Novelist Plus guide.
To get started, use the link below to open NoveList Plus. You may be prompted to log-in with your ULID and password.
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NoveList PlusFull text book reviews for children's and young adult literature (fiction and non-fiction). Also includes reading level indicators (Lexiles) for readability.
Once you have NoveList Plus open, enter the title of the book you want to learn more about in the search bar and hit enter.
From your results list, click on the title or cover of the book you are investigating. This will take you to a page with detailed information about your book to inform your thinking on the text. There are key elements you will want to explore when evaluating your book on NoveList Plus. Select the accordion for each item below to learn more!
Story elements in NoveList Plus try to tell you a lot of information about a book in an abbreviated format. Not all books are assigned every story element. These include:
- Storyline - Storyline is a quick way to determine a book’s focus and structure. (ex. Action-packed, Character-driven, Own voices)
- Pace - Pace is the rate at which a story unfolds for the reader. We identify books at either end of the spectrum. We also tag those that start slowly, then accelerate as the story progresses. (ex. Fast-paced, intensifying, Leisurely paced)
- Tone -Tone is the feeling that a book evokes in the reader. In many cases, this category best answers the question, “What are you in the mood for?” (ex. Creepy, Feel-good, Hopeful)
- Writing Style -Writing style terms tell us how a book is written, from the complexity of the language to the level of detail in the background. (ex. Descriptive, Engaging, Witty)
- Character - Character terms are especially for those readers who love books because of the characters. Only applied to fiction books. (ex. Courageous, Culturally diverse, Relatable)
- Illustration - For books that feature a lot of illustration, these terms identify elements like color, drawing style, or the mood evoked in the reader by the illustrations. (ex. Cartoony, Realistic, Detailed)
- Genre - Genre terms associated with the book. (ex. Romance, Science fiction, Horror)
- Theme - These terms describe popular and recurring plot elements found in the book. (ex. Chosen one, Framed!, Road tripping)
- Subject - These terms communicate the key details about the general who, what, where, and when of the story.
As an example, here are the story elements of On the Trapline:
Under the story elements in NoveList Plus, books also have a Min/Max grade level. This grade range identifies the grades of students which are likely to be engaged by the content in the book.
There also might be a Lexile measure or Accelerated Reader designation. These identify the text complexity, meaning how complicated it is to read the book. To learn more about how to interpret the text complexity, revisit the Independent Reading Text page.
For example, see the interest level and text complexity for On the Trapline:
NoveList Plus also aggregates book reviews from major publishers such as Booklist, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Hornbook, and more. This can be tremendously useful to learn more about the content of the book, but also to see how the book was received by professionals. Beginnings of reviews will have /* Starred Review */ if it is a highly positive review from that publication, where the reviewer thought the book likely to be one of the best of the year. Most reviews will summarize the book and also include some evaluation which you may use to support your rationale for using the book.
For example, see the reviews included for On the Trapline:
