Choosing Books for Your Child
Helping your child select books for independent reading can be a challenge. First, talk to your child’s teacher for recommendations. Ask the teacher for your child’s Guided Reading Level or Lexile Reader Measure. The following websites allow you to search for books at your child’s level.
Usborne Books & More
Usborne and Kane Miller books are the most exciting, engaging, and educational books on the market today. They are high-quality, innovative, lavishly-illustrated, and best of all, they are the books kids love to read. Choose from over 1,800 bright, colorful, and fun titles covering a wide variety of subjects.
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Scholastic Books
You can search for book titles by Guided Reading Level. You can also enter a book title to see its reading level.
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The Lexile Framework for Reading
You can search for book titles using your student’s Lexile Reader Measure. The site also allows you to search for books in a student’s areas of interest.
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Booksource
Although intended for teachers, Booksource is easy to navigate and displays leveled book lists with many popular titles for kids.
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Michaels Associates
This site for teachers allows you to print a Guided Reading Leveled List to take to the library or book store.
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The two charts below compare various reading measures. Use the charts to make comparisons between Guided Reading & Lexile levels.
For example:
- You know your child’s Lexile Reader Measure is 500-599.
- Your child finds a book that interests him. When you look for the book’s reading levels on the websites, you only find a Guided Reading Level listed for the book. It identifies the book’s reading level as “S.”
- Both comparison charts list level “S” as equivalent to a Lexile of over 700, which is higher than your child’s measure of 500-599. Therefore, this book will be too difficult for your child to read.
About Heidi
Heidi Hildebrandt, Owner and Tutor at Steps 2 Reading, LLC, is committed to helping students achieve their reading potential. She assists children and adults in developing reading and spelling skills and in increasing their self-confidence.