Learning how to read is a hideously complicated endeavour for both children and their parents. In UK schools, reading is taught using synthetic phonics and it takes about 3–5 years (or more) to create fluent, confident readers able to enjoy books like The BFG, The Secret Seven or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. During this time, their reading books are graded by difficulty levels known as book bands.

Most Primary Schools in England use book bands in conjunction with synthetic phonic schemes to teach children how to read. Each book band matches their reading level as well as their level of understanding, allowing them to gain confidence and independence without ever feeling that reading is ‘too hard’.

The Book Band Colour Coded System

The Book band system is a colour coded system introduced in a book published in 1998 called Bands for Guided Reading, by Shirley Bickler and Suzanne Baker (now in its 4th edition). Bickler and Baker created bands to organize books read in Reception and Keystage 1. The system has since been expanded to include four additional levels for Keystage 2 as well. The Book Band system is now used across of primary schools in the UK and the big publishers of Early Reader Books align their schemes with the system so that most books contain the colour code on the back.

Children are encouraged and supported to learn how to read at their own pace, but it’s useful to know the general direction and speed of progress. The chart below illustrates the Book Bands in correspondence with age and academic year. It is not a definitive standard, but a great general guideline.

Variations in the system

Rainbow readers

When the system only went up to Lime, readers became ‘rainbow readers’ once they completed the Lime band.

Different colours for higher bands

Most publishers band their books as brown, grey, blue/dark blue and red/ruby/dark red/burgundy, but not all. Some publishers have adopted different colours above Lime. Collins Big Cat, a whole-school reading programme, uses Copper, Topaz, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl. It doesn’t really matter which scheme is used, all that matters is consistency, so always check with your school which reading scheme they have implemented.

Different schemes

Some schools implement their own colour coded book band system entirely unrelated to the scheme above. They select their own colours, so what’s a red book here might be their green and a white here might be their red. Talk to your child’s school and ask which book banding system they’ve implemented and use.

Book Band Levels

As a parent, it’s nice to have a general idea of what each level of the Book Band is going to be like and it’s much easier to understand their progress and manage our own expectations. Although I’ve estimated page numbers, these are not the criteria used to determine which band a book should be put into.

Books Bands look at the complexity of the language, sentence structure, book format and the role of illustrations. Not only do the words, sentences and structure of the text become increasingly complex, so does the plot line, characters and narrative elements. Language becomes more figurative and meaning has to be inferred. However, at the earlier levels, they are shorter books and building reading stamina is one of the challenges addressed by the Book Band system.

As my daughter progressed through the levels I found it invaluable to have a general estimate of the length of a book she’s expected to be able to read. It allowed me to instantly eliminate books that would be too difficult — but it only works one way. Lower band books cannot be long, but the upper band books can be very short as long as they use a more complex vocabulary and structure. In addition, factual books are shorter than fiction and poetry books are always significantly shorter than everything else.

Early Book Bands

The early book bands correspond with the phonetic stages. During all these bands, children read aloud and the focus is squarely on learning how to read fluently whilst understanding what’s being read. These are the reading scheme based book bands.

• Lilac: No words, narrative pictures. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 1 (Pre-school/Reception).
• Pink: ± 8 pages. 1 short sentence per page. Correspond with Phonics Phase 2 (1st Term Reception).
• Red: ± 12–16 pages. 1 sentence per page. Correspond with Phonics Phase 3 (2nd Term Reception).
• Yellow: ± 16 pages. One sentence per page. Correspond with Phonics Phase 3–4 (2nd — 3rd Term Reception).
• Blue: ±16 pages. 1–2 short sentences per page. Correspond with Phonics Phase 4–5. (3rd Term Reception — Year 1).
• Green: ± 20 pages. 2–3 short sentences per page. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 5 (Year 1).
• Orange: ± 20–24 pages. 4–5 sentences per page. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 5–6. (Year 1–2).
• Turquoise: ± 24–32 pages. 1 short paragraph per page. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 5–6 (Year 1–2).
• Purple: ± 24–32 pages. Chapters are introduced. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 6 (Year 2).
• Gold: ± 24–32 pages. Figurative language is introduced. Corresponds with Phonics Phase 6 (Year 2).
• White: ± 24–32 page. Consolidates all phonetic knowledge and written to encourage intonation and fluent reading.

Higher book bands

The higher book bands increasingly focus on uncovering the underlying meaning rather than grasping the mechanics of reading. Book-length becomes largely irrelevant at this point. Usually, at least 30 pages, but some progress beyond 100 pages from Brown Level upwards. Readers now read fluently out loud and enjoy reading silently. The focus is squarely on understanding figurative language, making inferences and grasping subtle elements in the text with the assumptions that they can read fluently with understanding and independently add new words they come across to their vocabulary.

Not all schools follow the book band system through to the final bands. Once children can read fluently, they can tackle most children’s (and adult) books and it becomes more a matter of do they enjoy and understand the underlying themes than can they read it. Children will naturally abandon books that are too sophisticated for their level of understanding and gravitate to the books that resonate with them. As such, schools terminate book band levels anywhere from Lime Level upwards. At the point where book bands are no longer applied, children are considered ‘free readers’ and may read any book of their choosing.

• Lime (Year 2–4): Contains sophisticated word plays and puns and the narrative voice is distinctly separate from the characters’ point of view. Some silent and some aloud reading.
• Brown (Year 3–5): Readers now mainly read silently and afterwards discuss what they’ve read afterwards. During discussion, they are able to find references by skimming the text to support their opinion. You may now read your book whilst they read theirs.
• Grey (Year 3–6): This is often the point where readers pick favourite authors as they can now recognise an author’s particular writing style. This is fine in moderation — but continue to encourage them to read widely and develop the ability to analyze, discuss and enjoy reading poetry, fiction and a variety of factual narratives.
• Dark blue & dark red, black (Year 4–6): Develop a love for language. This is the phase where they’re underlining passages because the language is beautiful or captures a particular moment or idea very well. They will eagerly copy new phrases or words to use in their own writing and develop strong opinions about both the books they read and the people who write them. The best example of a well-known burgundy banded book is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
• Black: A tiny percentage of pupils will reach this level — it’s generally used to indicate secondary school level books.

For more details, Booklife has produced an excellent leaflet on what children are expected to achieve in each band.

We’ve noticed that Usborne’s children’s books tend to be longer than the average. The discrepancy becomes larger the higher the band of the book — for example, The Stories of Sherlock Holmes (OUP) is 21 pages long and in the Burgundy Band whilst Usborne’s adaption of Wuthering Height is 128 pages but a Brown Band book (3 levels lower).

Oxford Owl has a free book library online here with digital copies of books in each book band. It’s a great free resource and paging through a book in a particular level quickly gives you an idea of what the books in any particular level actually look like.

Older, outdated systems

Older — now mainly outdated systems — co-exist and older books may either display codes for two systems and books published prior to 1998 will only have the codes for older systems. The most noticeable is the old National Curriculum Levels that predates the 2014 update to the National Curriculum. These are numerical codes in the following order 1, 2c, 2b, 2a, 3c, 3b, 3a, 4c, 4b, 4a, 5c, 5b, 5a, 6 that grade books up to Year 6 — ignore these they have been superceded by the colour coded Book Band System.

The Oxford Reading Tree Levels pre-dates the Book Band System, but it’s very similar. It follows a numerical rather than colour based system. All Oxford Publishing books that pre-date the Book Band System will only have the numerical, whilst all books published after it will usually have both the numeral and the colour code on the back. Below is the ORT Level and how it corresponds with the book bands for Reception and Keystage 1.

Don’t get caught up in book bands

The book band system is invaluable for schools, but it’s not a system optimized for reading at home or 1-to-1 tuition situations like homeschooling. It’s a system made for teachers and classrooms. As a parent, don’t get caught up in book bands outside of a supervisory capacity. It’s great to be able to understand the system and keep an eye out for slow or too rapid progress, or as is often the case, your child’s reading book not matching their reading level, but that’s pretty much the most use you’re going to get out of it.

If you enjoy min-maxing your child’s education, book bands can be useful to follow across different book types. Children often quickly excel at reading fiction — because it’s instantly enjoyable — but lag behind with poetry and factual texts. Supplement their reading with banded books outside the areas they gravitate to so that they become confident readers of all types of text within their current level.

If you homeschool or flexi-school and follow the national curriculum, invest in an early reading scheme (or two) — there are many — that cover the phonics based book band levels (Lilac — Lime). Use free resources like Oxford Reading Tree as guidance.

Raising enthusiastic readers

In preschool and much of reception, children are only able to read part of the phonetic alphabet which instantly disqualifies them from reading books outside the phonics schemes. For a year or two, life revolves around them reading their book band book daily whilst their main source of entertainment will continue to rest squarely in the act of being read to. Once they reach Lime Level, it’s a whole new ball game where book bands have much less of an impact.

If you like the banded system, it is possible to just continue following it along — as many schools do — but there is no big list to find books within a set book band. However, most publishers do provide lists and there are multiple online providers that put together book packs within a certain band. It’s possible to find a reasonable number of books within each band and we generally recommend finding a good list and reserving the books at your local library as they’ll be read once or twice and probably never again. Book band books are rarely a great long-term investment.

The most important aspect of learning how to read is enjoyment. Read wide and read every day. Continue to select books based on interest level, fill your bookshelves with the classics and encourage children to read absolutely everything. We always have a few book banded books on the shelf, but mainly we fill the shelves with a variety of classic fiction, poetry, a wide range of factual books and educational magazines. The best rule of thumb for selecting appropriate books at home is much better than the book band system.

Step 1: Let them choose a book that appeals to them.
Step 2: Let them decide if it’s at the appropriate level using the five finger test.

The Five Finger Test

Let your child pick a book they like and open it on a random page in the middle. They read the page aloud and put 1 finger up for every word they either can’t sound out/read or don’t understand. Read until their either have 5 fingers up or get to the end of the page.

The finger guide:
0: Too easy, put it back.
1: An easy, quick read.
2: Perfect choice with a bit of challenge, but can be read fluently.
3: A challenging read, may need some help from a parent or a dictionary. Will probably require a second read through to fully understand it.
4: Will be difficult to read and understand. Read with a parent or choose another book.
5: Definitely choose an easier book.

We love the five-finger test. It means less work for me and more fun for her. I don’t have to keep researching books or keep a close eye on her reading level. All I do is buy children’s books that I think she’d enjoy at some point and put them on the shelf. And visit the library once a week. She has more freedom. I have more freedom. Perfect solution.