Your monthly books

Every plan comes with a number of books each month. Sprout brings 15 and Grove brings 40, and each extra reader you pay for adds 5 more. The books are shared by everyone in your family, so any of your readers can use them.

What each book uses

The kind of book your child gets follows their age group, and a longer book uses more of the allowance.

A book is paid for when it starts rather than when it finishes. If it cannot be finished, or our automatic checks stop it, what it used is given back to you automatically. A book that one of us is reading first stays paid for while it waits. Refunds explains all of this.

"Have it read aloud" is paid for as soon as you ask for it. If the recording does not finish, the book it used is not given back automatically, so write to us. Having a chapter book read aloud covers the option.

Monthly books are used first

We always take books from this month's allowance before touching any extra books you bought, because the monthly books do not carry over and the ones you bought never expire. If a chapter book needs two and only one monthly book is left, it takes that one and one extra book.

When the monthly books are used up but you still have extra books, Plan and books says "You have read a lot this month", and the next books come from your extra books. When both are used up, your child sees "There are no books left. A grown-up can add more." and your Home page shows "No books left this month".

When the books come back

The allowance is set back to the full amount each month. It is not added to what you had, so books you did not use this month do not roll over.

• On a monthly plan, the books come back when your plan renews, which is the date Plan and books gives in "It renews on".
• On a yearly plan, you pay once a year but the books still arrive a month at a time. They come back a month after they last did, and we check for this once a day. A yearly plan never hands you a year's books at once.
• If a payment has not gone through, the monthly books wait until it does. When a payment does not go through explains what still works in the meantime.
• If you change plan partway through a month, what you have left is carried across and adjusted by the difference between the two allowances. Change your plan has the details.
• If you add an extra reader, its books for the rest of the current month are added straight away, in proportion to how much of the month is left. During the free trial nothing is added, because the trial's books are fixed.

What the figures on Plan and books mean

The card at the top of Plan and books has three figures:

• "Books left this month" shows how many of this month's plan books are left, out of the full allowance. It counts in the same way as the table above, so a chapter book takes two off it.
• "Extra books" shows the books you bought, or were given through a gift, a code or a friend. These never expire.
• "Readers on your plan" shows how many readers you have, out of how many your plan covers. When you pay for extra readers, the label changes to "Readers, with 1 extra", or however many extras you have.

Further down, "History" lists the last 20 changes to your extra books, such as books added, used or given back. Books taken from the monthly allowance are not listed there; the "Books left this month" figure is where you see those.

During the free trial

The free trial has 2 books in all, whichever plan it is for, and a code that adds days to a trial does not add books. While the trial runs, the figure on Plan and books reads "Of 2 books to try".

When the trial ends and your plan starts, the full monthly allowance starts that day, and your months are counted from then. How the free trial works covers the rest.

If something about your books does not add up, write to us from Help in your dashboard and choose "A payment, a plan or a refund".