What It's All About - the Definitive Guide
These books are for any child to read. The fact that they have extra information (levels and points) just makes it easier to pick a book that might be just right. If you, or your son or daughter, are involved with Accelerated Reader (AR) at school then you will already have an idea of what they mean. Below is an explanation. Please read this before choosing books as it will help with your choices.
Of course, if you would rather not get into any of this at all, then feel free to browse all the books and choose whatever you want.
Of course, if you would rather not get into any of this at all, then feel free to browse all the books and choose whatever you want.
Book Levels
Book Levels are critical and determine the difficulty of the book in terms of comprehension (the literal understanding of the text). Both the text level and the sentence level are taken into account together with the difficulty of the vocabulary. Levels go from 0.2 - 13.5 with all the digits in between. The levelling takes nothing else into account and it is not unusual to be surprised that a book is considerably 'easier' than you might expect or 'harder' than you might expect.
Points
Points will give you an idea of the length of the text. They go from 0.5 - 118 points. 0.5 books (the only half point, the rest are all whole numbers) are skinny books such as the Katie Morag series in the LY and MY categories together with many, many others; most picture books are only 0.5 points whereas some small 0.5 point story books reach up to a few hundred words. The 118 points book is War and Peace and that has a staggering 587,287 words!. If the size of the book is important, you could find a book that you know, see how many points it is and then you would have a rough idea of the length of books you are choosing.
Lower Years (LY), Middle Years (MY), Middle Years Plus (MY+) and Upper Years (UY)
All these definitions concern the suitability of the content. These are guidelines only and, while every effort is made to ensure age-appropriate content, it cannot be guaranteed.
Lower Years (LY)
Lower Years (LY)
These books are suitable for ages 5 - 8 years, but younger children may also enjoy the picture books. Many of the books will also be suitable for some older children. Click here for all LY books or here if you want them categorised by book level..
Middle Years (MY)
Middle Years (MY)
These books are suitable for ages 9 - 13 years, but younger children might enjoy some of these books at your discretion. Older children will also enjoy them too. Click here for all MY books or here if you want them categorised by book level..
Middle Years Plus (MY+)
Middle Years Plus (MY+)
These books are suitable for ages 12 - 13 years who are in secondary school. You might feel that some of these books are suitable for primary school children of the same age and, if so, this choice will be at your discretion. Older children will enjoy these books too. Click here for all MY+ books or here if you want them categorised by book level..
Upper Years
Upper Years