Making Reading Relevant

Moving schools has been no joke!  I am loving my new group of kiddos and super grateful for my new colleagues answering all my questions; it is not easy being the new kid for the first time in 7 years.  What is even more difficult is moving into another teacher's space.  We like things our way, there is no denying that.  So when you inherit a classroom library the first thing you need to do is go through it.  Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to have books in my classroom, but it is so important to have books that students can connect to and that are RELEVANT to their lives.
Have you even seen the look on a kiddo's face when you hand them a book that has no connections to their life?  Well that look is devastating!  In order to make sure I see nothing but excitement on my students' faces this year I made sure to give my classroom library a facelift.
I quickly jumped on Hameray Publishing's website and began making a list of books from the Kaleidoscope Collection to rebuild my library.  I love the Kaleidoscope Collection's nonfiction book selection.  There are so many books that my students are interested in.  One title that they cannot get enough of right now is Summer Olympics.

So why is it important to provide students access to relevant text?  Well, making connections is why.  Readers that make connections to their reading are readers that will continue to pick up new books and continue to make connections.  We don't want to loose readers by having irrelevant text in our classrooms.
What are some of your must have genres and titles for your readers?