About Beanstack

What is Beanstack?

Beanstack is a free service provided by your local library to help you discover books based on you or your child's age and interests. Our goal is to help prepare your child for school and ensure that he or she is reading at or above grade level by third grade. All books recommended are available for free at your library.

What makes Beanstack different?

Beanstack only includes books that have been selected by your local librarians. These books have been cataloged using over 3,000 tags, like "Daring to be Different" or "Not So Pink Girls," that require a human being's expert consideration. Recommendations are then made based on each individual reader's age and interests. Plus, each recommendation for children includes a learning tip to give you ways to help your child excel in school.

What is included when I sign up for Beanstack?

With a Beanstack profile, you'll receive one recommendation per week of a book matched to you or your child's age, interests, and background.  We include easy-to-use learning tips and activities for each book selected.

You may also view our themes, which are learning guides that include tips and activities on subjects ranging from "Exploring Egypt" to "Say No to Bullying!" 

Setting Up a Profile

What if I want to change the preferences listed for reading level and interests?

You may change your preferences at any time. The book selected will match whatever you have set at the time of your next recommendation.

Can I sign up for more than one child or adult?

Yes. You can set up as many profiles as you like.

How do I cancel my free account?

You can cancel your Beanstack account at any time. Just go to one of your individual profile pages and click on "Edit Profile" then "Cancel Your Profile." If you change your mind, you can always reactivate your account.

Book Recommendations

Are all of the books recommended available at my local library?

Yes. Books recommended are included in your library's collection and may be checked out for free. If the book is currently checked out by another patron, you can put it on hold to check out in the future.

What if I already own the recommended book?

You can just ignore that week's recommendation, though the learning tip may still be useful. Adding books that you or your child have already read to the "Completed Items" list in his or her profile will also help. Any books marked as "Completed Items" will not be recommended.

Learning Tips and Guides

How do learning tips work?

Most of the recommendations that are personalized to a child's age and interests will include a learning tip. These learning tips are provided in a single paragraph, which often encourages Every Child Ready to Read practices. They are linked to the specific book recommended but may be helpful in general.

If a book also has a learning guide, what additional information is included?

Some books included on Beanstack have longer learning guides that you can access through your child's profile. These guides provide tips and activities for building literacy with your loved one. They include everything from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) connections to arts and crafts projects. All guides are digital and optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

See one of our learning guides for a book here.

What is a themed learning guide?

Each themed learning guide is created by an individual curator on a topic about which they are passionate. Themed learning guides include book recommendations along with background information, discussion starters, activities, suggested family experiences, and additional resources.

See one of our themed learning guides here.

Saved & Completed Items

How should I use the Saved and Completed Items feature of my child's profile?

Saved Items and Completed Items are separate sections of your child's profile where you can add books that we recommend or that you discover through the Beanstack database. This way, you can more easily track the books in which your family is most interested. You can also mark the books that your child has completed to keep a record of his or her progress. 

So, if I mark an item as "Saved" or "Completed," will you recommend it to me?

No. The list is there primarily for your benefit to separate out the books that you and your family like most.

Sharing

How can I use Beanstack to collaborate with teachers and family?

You can share access to your child's Beanstack profile with family members and teachers so that they can see your list of selected books and learning guides. This can be useful for keeping them up-to-date on what your child or loved one is reading. 

How do I share my child’s profile with others?

Through your child's profile, just click “Share.” You can then add the email address of the person(s) you want to invite. You’ll be able to see when they have accepted your invite and can also revoke their access at anytime.

I have a share code. How do I use it?

Just go to the sign up page for a free account and enter your share code. From there, you can access the child’s profile to update preferences and access learning guides.

The Beanstack Database

What kind of books do you curate?

We ask our experts to only select books that they would want for their own child, student, or loved one. After that, we catalog each entry, using over 2,000 common-sense tags ranging from "Adventure" to "Zany."

How do you choose which books to curate?

We have a team of librarians and experts across the country catalog books that they have found really useful for the families and adults they serve. From there, your local librarians curate additional books and decide which of these to include in the database and recommendations provided to your specific community.

Contact Us

I have a question. How do I get in touch?

Click on "Contact Us" at the bottom of this page.

I know of a good book that’s not listed. Can I recommend it?

Absolutely! We are always looking for great books, so if you know of one and don’t see it listed, please recommend a book by clicking on "Contact Us" below. Currently, we will only consider cataloging books that are in the collections of at least 25 public library systems.