Books Word Search

About this puzzle

This list covers the vocabulary kids meet in reading class and at the library: the parts of a book, like the Spine, Chapter, and Glossary; the people who make one, like the Author and Illustrator; and the language of story, like Plot, Setting, Character, and Narrator. A handful of genre words, from Mystery to Fantasy to Biography, round it out.

Every word comes with a short, kid-friendly definition, so the page doubles as a reading vocabulary review. It fits nicely into a library visit, a book fair week, Read Across America Day, or a quiet afternoon at home, and the finished puzzle makes a good starting point for talking about a favorite book.

The 33 words in this puzzle

Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.

In every version (12)

Author

The person who writes a book. Some authors write one book in their whole lives, while others write hundreds.

Bookmark

A strip of paper, ribbon, or cardboard placed between pages to save your spot. It is a much kinder choice than folding down the corner of a page.

Chapter

One of the main sections a long book is divided into. Chapters often have numbers or titles, and they give readers a natural place to pause.

Cover

The outside of a book. The front cover shows the title, the author, and often a picture chosen to make readers curious about what is inside.

Fiction

Stories that come from an author's imagination rather than from real events. Nonfiction is the opposite: writing about real people, places, and facts.

Library

A place that collects books and other materials for people to borrow or read. The Library of Congress in Washington, DC, is one of the largest libraries in the world.

Mystery

A genre built around a puzzle, usually a crime or secret, that a detective or clever character solves. Readers collect clues and try to guess the answer first.

Page

One side of a sheet of paper in a book. Page numbers help readers keep their place, and the table of contents shows which page each chapter starts on.

Poetry

Writing arranged in lines that often uses rhythm, rhyme, and vivid images. Each group of lines in a poem is called a stanza.

Reader

The person reading a book. Good readers make predictions, ask questions, and picture the story in their minds as they turn the pages.

Story

An account of events, real or made up, told to entertain or teach. Most stories have characters, a setting, and a plot with a problem to solve.

Title

The name of a book, usually printed on the front cover and the spine. In writing, book titles are shown in italics or underlined.

Added in Medium and Hard (8)

Character

A person, animal, or creature in a story. The main character is often called the protagonist, and the one who stands in their way is the antagonist.

Fairy Tale

A traditional story with magic, royalty, or talking animals, like Cinderella. The Brothers Grimm collected and published many German fairy tales in the early 1800s.

Fantasy

A genre with magic or things that could not happen in real life, such as dragons, wizards, or talking animals. Many fantasy stories take place in invented worlds.

Illustrator

The artist who creates the pictures in a book. In many picture books, the illustrations tell as much of the story as the words do.

Novel

A long work of fiction, usually divided into chapters. Chapter books and middle grade novels are many young readers' first step beyond picture books.

Picture Book

A book where pictures and words tell the story together. Many picture books are 32 pages long, and they are often read aloud to young children.

Plot

The series of events that make up a story. Most plots have a beginning, a problem or conflict, a climax, and a resolution.

Setting

Where and when a story takes place. A setting can be a real city in the past, an ordinary school today, or an imaginary planet.

Added in Hard (13)

Biography

A true story of a person's life written by someone else. When people write about their own lives, it is called an autobiography.

Dictionary

A book that lists words in alphabetical order with their meanings and spellings. Noah Webster published his famous American dictionary in 1828.

Editor

The person who helps an author improve a book before it is published, suggesting changes to the story and catching mistakes in spelling and grammar.

Genre

A category of writing that shares a style or type of subject, such as mystery, fantasy, poetry, or biography. The word comes from French and means kind or sort.

Glossary

A list of special words and their meanings, usually found at the back of a nonfiction book. It is like a small dictionary made just for that book.

Index

An alphabetical list at the back of a nonfiction book that shows the pages where each topic appears. It helps readers find facts quickly.

Narrator

The voice telling the story. A first person narrator says I and takes part in the story, while a third person narrator describes the characters from outside.

Paperback

A book with a flexible paper cover. Paperbacks are lighter and usually cheaper than hardcovers, which have stiff board covers.

Prologue

A short section before the first chapter that sets up the story, often by telling something that happened earlier. A section after the ending is called an epilogue.

Publisher

The company that turns a finished manuscript into a book, handling the printing and cover design and getting copies into stores and libraries.

Sequel

A book that continues the story of an earlier one. When several books follow the same characters, they make up a series.

Spine

The edge of a book where the pages are bound together. When a book stands on a shelf, the spine shows its title and author.

Theme

The big idea or lesson of a story, like friendship, courage, or honesty. Readers usually figure out the theme from what the characters do and learn.

A few facts to share while you solve

• After British troops burned the US Capitol and the Library of Congress inside it in 1814, Thomas Jefferson sold his personal collection of more than 6,000 books to help rebuild the library.
• Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham using just 50 different words, after his publisher bet him he could not do it.
• The Newbery Medal, first awarded in 1922, honors outstanding writing for children, while the Caldecott Medal, first awarded in 1938, honors the illustrations in an American picture book.

Four versions of this puzzle

Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.

Hard and large print versions

Hard books word search: all 33 words on a 17 × 17 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.

Large print books word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.

Printing this word search

Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.

How to play online

1. Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
2. Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
3. Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.

Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.