Many children's books aren't conducive to storing on bookshelves the way other books are shelved. They don't have large spines to identify the books—and anyway, young children identify books by their covers, not by the words on the spines. Some adult books have the same storage challenge; for example, I've picked up small cookbooks that have no spines. So book storage designed to display the covers can be very useful.

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Wall-mounted racks can be placed low for children or higher for adults. The Booksee Shelf from Ubabub fastens to the wall using the series of pre-drilled holes on the back panel of each shelf. The clear acrylic means the entire book cover is visible. With the open ends, two shelves can be placed side by side with a barely noticeable gap. 

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Book Bound from Jennifer Delong is enclosed at the ends, which eliminates the chance of books falling out. While the bottoms of the books are hidden, a good amount of the cover is still visible. (It won't work for small board books, though.) Book Bound is made from formaldehyde-free MDF and has a high gloss, low VOC finish. It's available in five colors to fit various room decors. 

Other things could be stored inside the boxes, which is both good (because it provides for flexible uses) and bad (because I can see things getting hidden inside). Those little soldiers stored on the rim? They're going to fall onto the floor or into the box in no time.

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The Restoration Hardware bookrack stores books very securely, with closed ends and both a ledge and a rail. It seems as though the rail would make the books harder to remove, though. And because the three tiers are all part of a single piece, there's a set limit on the book heights in the lower tiers.

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Not all parents will want wall-mounted book racks; floor models avoid installation hassles, although taller ones like this one from Pottery Barn Kids should still be secured to the wall for safety purposes. (It wisely comes with the appropriate mounting hardware.) This design seems to have enough space between the tiers to hold tall books, and the shallow ledge means it might work for short books, too. And it wisely comes with mounting hardware to secure the rack to the wall.

The photo illustrates another advantage commonly found with this style of bookshelf, besides the ease of finding a book by its cover—it's less deep than a traditional bookshelf and might therefore fit where other bookshelves will not.

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The New Issue Bookcase from Land of Nod makes it very easy to see all the books, take the books out and put them away. But with the short ledge and no rail, it seems best suited for hardcover books; tall paperbacks and coloring books, which don't stand upright as well, might bend over or fall out. One nice feature on this bookcase is the rounded corners, making it less likely someone will get hurt on a sharp edge.

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Sling bookcases, such as this one from KidKraft, are another popular design; children find them very easy to use. These will not work for short books, though.

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One Step Ahead tackled the short-book problem by staggering the depth of the shelves. With the storage bins, this is a bookshelf and more; some families will appreciate the combined storage. One concern: A purchaser noted that "there is no easy way to take the cloth slings off to wash them." 

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For younger children, a bookshelf might not always be the best storage solutions. The Toddler See-Thru Book Browser from Jonti-Craft makes it easy for little ones to find their books and pull them out. One purchaser mentioned how durable it was, standing up to the abuse a 1-year-old can subject things to. 

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This Low Level Kinderbox from Gresswell comes with lockable castors that can be added to easily move the box around. The shelf at the bottom handles books that are too large for the kinderbox compartments. That's a really nice design feature, since storing such oversized books is a problem that I often see.

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For those who already have bookshelves but would like to include some front-facing book storage, one option is to just put books into a sturdy bin or basket that fits on the shelf. That's what I've done in my own home. 

But a nicer (and much more expensive) alternative comes from 3branch: the Magbrowz bins (for picture books) and trays (for board books). 

On a related note: As we've mentioned before, there's an interesting way to make books that do have nice spines easier for some people to find. If you store them on their sides, as Karl Lagerfeld does, you can read the titles on the spines without twisting your head.