How the reading works
What a book looks like at each age, and how we check it landed there.
What changes with age
Ages 2 to 5
A short picture book to share aloud.
- Length
- 100 to 500 words
- Pictures
- 8 to 10
- Chapters
- None
- Jeopardy
- none
Ages 5 to 7
A first book to read yourself, built from sounds you know.
- Length
- 500 to 1,500 words
- Pictures
- 8 to 12
- Chapters
- None
- Jeopardy
- mild
Ages 7 to 9
A first chapter book with a hook at the end of each chapter.
- Length
- 4,000 to 8,000 words
- Pictures
- 4 to 6
- Chapters
- 5 to 8
- Jeopardy
- moderate
Ages 9 to 12
A longer story with subplots, and paths you can choose.
- Length
- 8,000 to 15,000 words
- Pictures
- 3 to 5
- Chapters
- 8 to 14
- Jeopardy
- moderate
How we measure the level
Two things make text harder: longer sentences, and less familiar words. We measure both on every book and record what we found, then show you the number rather than a claim. If a draft misses the level it was written for, it gets rewritten before any pictures are drawn.
We store a grade estimate, a reading measure in the style of the ones schools use, and a banding letter. They are estimates. They are useful for matching a child to a book, and they are not a judgement about a child.
The order the sounds come in
For a child learning to decode, every word in a story has to be one they can sound out with what they have been taught, apart from a small set learned by sight and the character names. This is the order we follow.
- 1. First soundss · a · t · p · i · n
Learned by sight: I, a, the, to
- 2. More single lettersm · d · g · o · c · k
Learned by sight: no, go, into
- 3. Short vowels completeck · e · u · r
Learned by sight: he, she, we, me, be
- 4. Double lettersh · b · f · ff · l · ll · ss
Learned by sight: was, you, they, all, are, my
- 5. Remaining consonantsj · v · w · x
Learned by sight: her, said
- 6. Y, z and quy · z · zz · qu
Learned by sight: have, like, so, do, some, come
- 7. Consonant digraphsch · sh · th · ng · nk
Learned by sight: were, there, little, one, when, out
- 8. Vowel digraphsai · ee · igh · oa · oo · ar · or · ur · ow · oi · ear · air · ure · er
Learned by sight: what, oh, their, people, looked, called
- 9. Alternative spellingsay · ou · ie · ea · oy · ir · ue · aw · wh · ph · ew · oe · au · a_e · e_e · i_e · o_e · u_e · tch · dge · kn · wr · mb
Learned by sight: asked, could, would, should, water, where, who, again
Decodable text is a scaffold, not a reading programme. It comes off as a child moves on, which is why the restriction applies to one age band and not to the rest.