The Shelf Elf Helps Out

by Jackie Mims Hopkins, Rebecca Thornburgh (Illustrator)

When Skoob decides to help Ms. Turner by shelving a cart full of books, he gets help from Stacks the Grand Dewey Daddy Shelf Elf to understand how library classification and the Dewey Decimal system work.

Genres: Picture Books, Books About Books, Nonfiction, Childrens

36 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Jackie Mims Hopkins is a storyteller, a school librarian and a former teacher. She is the author of several children's books, including The Three Armadillies Tuff and The Gold Miner's Daughter. She lives in Texas.

Reviews

[Nielson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute book! It is an excellent help to students, teachers, and librarians that are trying to learn the Dewey Decimal system. It has cute, catchy, easy-to-remember rhymes that help you know where books belong. This would be appropriate for all ages !

[Stefanie Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book introducing spine labels and sections of the library. There are little poems for each hundreds section in non-fiction which are cute. This book would be very helpful in lessons for spine labels.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great start to the book explaining what a call number is and the different sections of the library, and beautiful illustrations. The main text, explaining each hundreds section, is sufficient, though the rhyming couplets don't add anything.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just stumbled upon this book this year and will definitely be using it next year with kids in the library.

[Hattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely intro to the Dewey Decimal system, works well paired with The Shelf Elf.

[Cristofer Mattern · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to use for an introduction to the Dewey Decimal System.

[Lokita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little adventure through the Dewey Decimal System for the uninitiated or the library worker, like me!

[Ronda · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this 2nd Shelf Elf story, Hopkins uses our friendly Shelf Elf to introduce the reader to the Dewey Decimal section of a library. I've been using this story when I start introducing our students into the larger non-fiction (Dewey) section of our school library. The story includes little rhyming segments about each section by hundreds along with a general idea as to what is in that section. The story, by itself, is not going to be enough to familiarize young students with Dewey and I find that I need to editorialize quite a bit about some of the topics that I know are popular at our school in these sections. This one is not my favorite Shelf Elf story, but frankly, I think it's kind of hard to turn this subject into something the kids will sit in rapt attention for--even with expressive reading. That said, this story offers a good picture book format way to introduce and reinforce some ideas. And, if you have the little plush Shelf Elf doll? Be sure you've moved it around the library some. The kids' reaction when you pull out a new Shelf Elf story is great.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shelf Elf Helps Out helps explain and understand the different divisions of the Dewey Decimal System to young readers. It explains how the numbers on the spine represent different 'neighborhoods' for the books. Most libraries are organized by this method and it helps to understand the reasoning behind the system.

A good book for storytime or orientation.

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this book every year with my second graders. It goes really well as I use the other shelf elf books for other library concepts: behavior, dictionaries, thesauri, etc. however, I do have to paraphrase some pages and redo a little of the story line so that it fits for our library.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to help students understand the Dewey decimal system.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skoob continues in this book outlining the different Dewey sections of the library. I read this to the third grade at the start of the year.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat useful for teaching Dewey Decimal system, but ultimately, bores the children. At least it did my 3rd and 4th graders.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification system. I use it with my 2nd graders each year.

[Andrea Estelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty boring folks. Boys ran like the plague from this book explaining the Dewey Decimal system (yawn)

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of rules like the first one. Doesn't really make me want to go to the library. However, it might make a good story hour book so little ones know how to behave.

[Lisa M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cute library book.

Merged review:

Another cute library book.

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introduction to the Dewey Decimal System. It would be a good for introducing how nonfiction books are organized.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhymes that teach the Dewey Decimal System.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction to the Dewey System, 2nd/3rd/4th graders

[Jnase1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be good to use with 2nd and 3rd as a way to introduce nonfiction.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to read to my 2nd and 3rd graders to introduce the Dewey Decimal System.