Parts of a Book and their Meanings

First off, what is a book? Well this is a collection of pages inside a cover that you can place in a shelf or is seen at the library. But times today have changed and an eBooks, blog and journal are considered as a book now.

TITLE

Have you ever seen a book without a title? I doubt you have. Every book has their own title, they may not be unique but they will have a title on their front page. A title signifies or is the main topic for a certain book. An example would be ... when you read a book with a title “Algebra”, the first thing that comes to mind is, it's a book of math/algebra. It also identifies or it serves as a hint on what the book content is all about.

PUBLISHER

This is the company that prints the books. Well this is rather important because if no company decided to print your books then it wouldn't be published and it will not have the opportunity to be seen by people.

PREFACE

This is an introduction written by the author for a book. It usually has acknowledgement for those who assisted the author in his work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Not all books have a table of contents, but chapter books and most informative books will have one shortly after the copyright page. This is an especially useful tool for your child to be able to use. Take time to show them that each chapter is numbered and that you can look up specific chapters using the page numbers given in the table of contents. Let your child pick a chapter to read and then find that chapter by its page number.

GLOSSARY

A glossary is like a dictionary in the back of the book. It will list the definitions for more difficult words used in the book. Encourage your child to look up words they don’t understand as they read. You could also point out to them that the words are listed in alphabetical order just like a dictionary. Not only will this help them understand how the glossary works, but it will increase their vocabulary at the same time.

INDEX

Young children won’t have many opportunities to use the index of a book, but it is a big help as they look up information (especially for writing papers) as they get older. The index follows the glossary and lists topics found in the book with the page numbers those topics are found on. Have your child choose a topic from the book. Then turn to the page numbers, and read what the book says about that topic. You may find that your children have fun finding just certain information instead of just reading through the whole book.

Pointing out the various parts of a book while you read to them is a way to make sure that your child can successfully use those tools. A child that can use these will be able to easily find information, whether for a question about their schoolwork or for a research report.