To help you select a reading level appropriate book, in the juvenile collection you will see that the books are color coded. This coding is only internal to this library, and it is meant to be a guideline. 

The most difficult task is to select a book that is not only level appropriate, but that it is interesting and facilitate projects and activities. When selecting a book, think about:

How complex is the story. Does it needs prior knowledge of events, facts, people or places? How intermingled are the stories of the characters?

Difficult words. Sometime, a lower lever reading books might have few difficult words to pronounce, or the students might not know the meaning. It is important to read the book prior to using it in class.

Ratio pictures/words. In general, the higher the reading level, the book will have fewer images. Look at the images, are they representatives of the text? Are they scary?

Reading level. There are many tools to help you select the best books for a child. However, every child will have a different level of reading even within a level. To make sure the books is at the right level, you can use the 5 dots rule, a trick a teacher once taught me. Ask the student to read a page of the book and every time the student is struggling with a word, draw a star. If by the time the student has reached the end of the page you have 5 dots, the book is probably too difficult.

Adapted from “Ten Steps for Reviewing Children’s Books” and “Selecting Books for Young Children”