Reading at ages 7 to 9
A first chapter book with a hook at the end of each chapter.
What a book at this level is
These are not descriptions of what we aim for. They are the numbers a draft is measured against before anybody sees it: a book outside them is rewritten, and one that cannot be brought inside them is not sent.
- Length
- 4000 to 9000 words, aiming at 6500
- Pages
- 18 to 34, with 150 to 320 words on each
- Longest sentence
- 18 words
- Reading grade
- Flesch-Kincaid 2 to 4.5
- Lexile
- 450L to 800L
- Pictures
- 4 to 6
- Chapters
- 6 to 10, ending where you want to keep going
- How much is people talking
- Between 25 and 60 percent
- Built from sounds they know
- No, because nobody at this age is sounding a book out alone
- Danger in the story
- Moderate. Real stakes, and a resolution the reader can see coming.
What the story is like
How it is put together
One beat per chapter, stakes rising, with the problem resolved in the final chapter and a moment of warmth after it.
What is worth worrying about
Being good enough at something, and belonging to a group.
What is funny at this age
Things going wrong in front of you. Wordplay, which arrives when a child can hold two meanings of a word at once. A joke that comes back bigger each time. Never sarcasm: a child who does not yet hear it reads it as the thing it literally says, which in a story is usually unkind.
The shapes a story takes
chapters
Verse is not used at this age.
The levels either side
Children move between these at very different speeds and the speed is not the interesting part. A reader here is moved when what they actually read says they are ready, not on their birthday.