When your child presses "Finish" on the last page of a book, a few questions about the story come up before the end screen. They are there to help your child think back over what happened. Your child never sees a score, a total or a percentage, and a wrong answer does not hold them back.
How many questions
The questions are written with the book, about that story, and the book's age group decides how many we write.
| Age group | Questions we write |
|---|---|
| Ages 2 to 5 | 2 |
| Ages 5 to 7 | 3 |
| Ages 7 to 9 | 3 |
| Ages 9 to 12 | 3 |
Each question has two to four answers to choose from. The questions cover different things: what happened, why it happened, and how a character felt, and they are written so that the answer can be found in the story. We check the questions against the story before the book is ready, and a question whose marked answer does not hold up can be left out, so a book may have fewer. A book with no questions goes straight to the end screen.
Books with choices in them, for ages 9 to 12, can also have a question inside the book, on the page where the two paths meet. That one has no right answer: whatever your child taps, the page thanks them and the story carries on.
How a question works
- Pip shows the question in a speech bubble, and says it too if Pip's voice is on (see Pip's voice).
- Your child taps one of the answers. Once they have tapped, the answer cannot be changed.
- The right answer is marked with a tick, and a short explanation, where the question has one, appears under the answers, whichever answer your child chose.
- Your child presses "Next question", and after the last question, "Finish".
After any answer, Pip says a short line. After a wrong answer, Pip shows a thinking face rather than a cheering one, and the answer your child chose is shown a little faded. Nothing else is different: the same tick, the same explanation and the same button to move on. Nothing is taken away, and nothing stops your child reaching the end screen.
The one thing a full set of right answers can bring is a sticker called "Every question". It is given the first time your child answers every question on a book correctly, and it appears on the end screen when it is earned.
Where you see how it went
You can see how the questions went, as counts, on the Activity page and on your child's own Activity tab. A finished book shows a line such as "answered 2 of 3 questions" alongside how long your child read. Nothing on those pages says whether that was good or bad, and nothing is compared with other children.
If you have turned on "Learn what they enjoy" for your child, their answers also help us judge which books suit them. Reading level and phonics explains how the level of your child's books is set, and Following progress and report cards covers the rest of what you can see.
If the questions are missing or seem wrong
- A book with no questions goes straight to the end screen, so there is nothing to answer.
- If a question does not match the story, or its marked answer looks wrong, tell us from Help in your dashboard and choose "The reading level, or how a book turned out". Tell us the book and the question.