The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia (Books BC) announced the 2024-25 edition of their Books for Schools database. Books for Schools helps B.C. and Canadian publishers to effectively reach the K-12 market while providing teachers, teacher-librarians, other educators, and booksellers in B.C. and Canada with a free community resource to find suitable and appropriate books for the K-12 audience.
The BC Books for Schools and Indigenous Books for Schools collections have been long-standing initiatives of the Association since 2007. BC Books for Schools comprises B.C.-published titles, and Indigenous Books for Schools includes Canadian-published titles by Indigenous creators. Both collections are now available as a combined database on BooksForSchools.ca supported by enhanced search functionality and accessibility for users. The database is updated annually, with a total of 324 titles in the BC Books for Schools collection and 260 titles in the Indigenous Books for Schools collection so far.
Books for Schools
“We are incredibly proud of the evolution of this book program, which began as print catalogues mailed to every school in B.C. and has now become a free searchable database. It’s the easiest way to find B.C. books for BC students, as recommended by B.C. teachers and with links to curriculum,” says Leslie Bootle, Executive Director of Books BC, of the BC Books for Schools program.
The titles are selected and evaluated by qualified K-12 educators from B.C., and annotations include a descriptive review, grade level and curriculum matches, and theme mapping. The titles in the Indigenous Books for Schools collection undergo an additional evaluation for authentic Indigenous Voice, an evaluation process developed by the program’s lead education consultant Jackie Lever based on Dr. Greg Younging’s Elements of Indigenous Style.
Learn more about the database and find hundreds of evaluated K-12 books at BooksForSchools.ca.
