Below is website you can access to check the reading level of a book. Sometimes you may not be able to find the level. If that is the case, read below to see what the text complexity is for the band of levels. Your child can also use the "5 Finger Rule"...if there are more than 5 words on a page that they don't know or can't read, the book is too difficult.

Happy Reading!!!

Check out this link to discover book levels.

Book Wizard

Band of N,O,P,Q (Forever Amber to Chocolate Touch and A-Z mysteries to Fudge-a-Mania)

  • Characters become more ambivalent (Amber Brown wants to be a teenager and a kid at the same time)
  • Problem has more angles
  • Teach kids to ask what the central problem is
  • Teach kids to keep their eyes on the central storyline, while being willing to revise thinking as more information is revealed over time
  • Teach kids to ask why the characters do what they do, realizing there can be more than one causeCharacters are complex, but not usually subtle, feelings labeled by author
  • Academic language, tricky phrases and passages
  • Language requires world knowledge
  • Language can lead readers astray, requiring readers to self-correct and change interpretations if text doesn’t support interpretation

Band of R,S,T (Because of Winn-Dixie to Tiger Rising to Bridge to Terabithia)

· Place becomes a major element (historical fiction, example). Place is the character!

· Characters more complex, internal, emotional lives – not labeled, must infer

· Problems more complex-layered with meaning

· Tricky chapters – expect that sometimes you will not understand what’s going on, but keep reading to become clearer

Band of U,V,W (Number the Stars to Stargirl to Freak the Mighty)

  • Stories told chronologically but sometimes with back story
  • Multiple plot lines and sub plots
  • Characters and settings become symbolic of bigger themes
  • Characters are increasingly teenagers
  • Point of view increasingly important – some perspective is adult requiring understanding of the complexities of the adult world
  • Very often story is a statement if major social issues like oppression, injustice, or social norms
  • Author wants confusion for the reader
  • Reader usually understands more than the character involved

Band of X,Y,Z (Where the Red Fern Grows to Of Mice and Men)

  • Discussion on these levels still in progress – some books leveled as Z because of adult content, not text complexity
  • Multiple genres included
  • Multiple voices
  • Overlapping and conflicting perspectives
  • Reader must engage in figuring-tings-out work while reading
  • Requires a lot of world knowledge and knowledge of other texts
  • Many literary references
  • Books may be set up as puzzles
  • Characters use vernacular and vocabulary from an other time and place


Adapted from Lucy Calkins workshop February 9, 2010