Parts of a Book Lilburn Elementary

Most books have at least five of these parts. Spine Cover Author Illustrator Title Title Page Table of Contents Index Glossary Bibliography

The Spine The spine of a book is the part that you see when the book is on the shelf. The call numbers are on the spine. The spine of a book helps hold your book together and keep it strong just like the spine in your body does!

These spines give strength.

The Cover The cover is the outside of a book. There is usually a front cover, a back cover, and the part in between them called the spine. The cover of a book will include the title of the book.

The Author The author is the person who wrote the book. This information will be on the title page and usually on the cover.

The Illustrator The illustrator is the person who draws the pictures in the book or on the cover.

Title or Title Page The title of the book is usually on the cover. You can also see the title on the “title page” of the book, usually right inside the cover.

Table of Contents The table of contents will list the chapters or sections and tell you what on page they start.

The Index The index of a book will list all of the major topics – in alphabetical order – and tell you on what pages the information starts and stops. This will help you to quickly decide if a book has enough information about your topic so you don’t have to read the entire book to find one special topic.

The Glossary The glossary is a little dictionary in the back of the book that defines words you might not understand.

Bibliography example: The bibliography of a book lists all of the people who wrote books or articles that gave the author ideas and help when he wrote his book. It is a fair way to give credit to others who did work before the author. example: Ricciuti, Edward R. What on Earth is a Capybara? Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch, 1995.