Reluctant readers are reluctant to read and struggling readers struggle. Therefore books with lots of text in them are, in themselves, possibly enough to turn readers off. (For younger children, provided that the texts are at the right level, being faced with a lot of text is rarely in itself an issue.)
What are Book Bands?
Unsure what we mean when we talk about Book Bands and our book-banded readers? No worries. We’ve pulled together the following information about all things ‘Book Bands’ to guide you through the basics..
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What are Book Bands?
What is ‘guided reading’?
What criteria are used to determine which band a book fits into?
Can you describe the characteristics of a book at each band?
Are all books in a band at the same level of ‘difficulty’?
Can you use word count to decide which band a book belongs in?
What is Lilac Band?
Are there book bands higher than Lime?
At what rate should children progress through the bands?
Do Book Bands work with books for reluctant and struggling readers?
Can you band ‘real’ books?
A guide to Ransom’s book-banded readers
Further help with Book Bands
What are Book Bands?
Book Bands first emerged in 1998 with the publication of Book Bands for Guided Reading, by Shirley Bickler and Suzanne Baker. Today, Book Bands is the most popular system for levelling books in the UK.
Books (usually written and developed specifically to support book-banded guided reading) are graded into appropriate levels, or bands, in order to provide children at the early stages of learning to read with books that are challenging, but not too challenging. Then, as the children make progress and develop their literacy skills further, they can be given more demanding (and more rewarding!) books to read.
Originally there were eleven book bands, and each was denoted by a colour, as follows: Pink Band (the ‘lowest’), then Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Turquoise, Purple, Gold, White and Lime (the highest band).
These bands have now been extended to include additional colours before Pink and after Lime. You can find out more about this below.
What is ‘guided reading’?
Guided reading is a key element in working with book-banded texts. As children develop their reading skills, guided reading is a way in which children can apply their developing expertise in a structured situation.
In guided reading a teacher will identify a group of children who are at a similar level in their reading skills and will guide them to develop independent reading strategies on new and increasingly challenging texts.
Guided reading can be distinguished from independent reading (where children read on their own, without teacher guidance) and shared reading, which is much more of a whole-class activity, with the teacher taking the lead.
What criteria are used to determine which band a book fits into?
It’s a simple question, but in fact deciding which band a book fits into is a fairly complex issue, for two reasons.
First, the whole ‘Book Bands for guided reading approach’ takes account of a wide range of factors in deciding the appropriate level of a book. The ‘difficulty’, or complexity, of the text itself (i.e. the words on the page) is only one of a number of factors.
In the authoritative publication Which Book and Why? (Institute of Education Press, 2014) the authors list five criteria that help determine which band a particular book should be put in to. These criteria are:
Complexity of content and language structure
It might be a simple story based on familiar experiences, with natural language, or it might be a fantasy story using more literary language. The use of sentence structures or the use of the subjunctive and other devices is also critically important.
Complexity of format
For example, is it a simple storyline, or are there complex sequences of events? How is print placed on the page – font, font size, uses of captions, footnotes, diagrams, etc.
Complexity of book structure
For example, the number of sentences per page, the number and type of variations in sentence structure(s), the occurrence of repeated events in the narrative.
Complexity of use of alphabetic code
In other words, the complexity of the words used, opportunities to use decoding skills and occurrence of more complex words.
Changing role of illustrations
For example, do the illustrations give high support for meaning (i.e. directly illustrating the text), or is there only minor support (illustrations as embellishments) – right through to text only, with no illustrations at all.
The second reason why levelling a book into a particular band can be tricky is because, within the list of five criteria above, some of the judgements are very fine. The five criteria can also sometimes work against each other in a particular book, although this should not happen with a well-written book, properly designed for a particular book band.
We’ve been literacy specialists for over 20 years, so, as you've probably guessed, our Reading Stars Book Band readers are designed to the highest standard. We even had Shirley Bickler, co-author of Book Bands for Guided Reading, as a series consultant!
Can you describe the characteristics of a book at each band?
This is not easy to do. The book Book Bands for Guided Reading (4th edition, IOE Press, 2007) lists fairly extensive criteria for each band, but even these descriptions are of limited value.
In very simple terms, books at each band will have the following characteristics:
Pink
Very short, highly predictable, simple texts. One simple sentence per page, highly repetitive sentence and vocabulary structure. Natural language. Simple text variation on the last page. Illustrations directly support the text. Large print, suitable font, good spacing.
Red
Similar to Pink but with very limited variation(s) within the text.
Yellow
More variation in sentence structures, introduction of some literary conventions. Storylines likely to include more episodes.
Blue
Longer texts, up to 6-8 lines per page. Higher level of variation within text. Literary language mixed with natural language. Pictures support storyline – less support for precise meaning.
Green
Longer, more varied sentences. Little repetition in text, but unfamiliar words repeated. Print may be in captions, fact boxes, etc. Events sustained over several pages.
Orange
Stories up to 250-300 words, with more space for print than illustrations. More complex sentence structures, more literary language. Broader range of texts (plays, poetry, etc.).
Turquoise
More extended descriptions, more use of literary phrasing. Non-fiction texts use more challenging vocabulary. Lower dependence on illustrations.
Purple
Longer, more complex sentence structures. Some books with short chapters. Wider variety of genres. Characters becoming more rounded and distinctive. Non-fiction texts cover an increasing curriculum range. May include glossaries, indexes, etc.
Gold
More challenging again. Storylines may reflect the feelings of the writer. Widening vocabulary, but still a controlled proportion of unknown words.
White
Another step up. More subordinate phrases or clauses. More than one point of view may be expressed in the text and action might be implied rather than spelled out.
Lime
The highest level in the original bands.
Are all books in a band at the same level of ‘difficulty’?
No. A good reading scheme will offer books that start at the bottom of a band, with progression through that band up to the ‘hardest’ books in that band. Once children are secure with those books, they can then move on to the lowest books in the next band. Thus children are always being challenged, but are never faced with anything that is too difficult for them.
Can you use word count to decide which band a book belongs in?
For book-banded readers for guided reading, it is usual to state the number of words used in a text at the end of the book. This is very useful to help teachers who are working with children.
But can you use the word count to decide which Band a book belongs in? In other words, is a book of (say) 50 words a Pink Band, but a book of 400 words a White Band?
The answer is most definitely ‘no’: you cannot use the word count to band a book. For example, some texts may be relatively short, but more difficult vocabulary and more complex sentence structures might place the book in a higher band. Similarly, some texts (especially fiction texts with a lot of repetition) might have a high word count but have simple, repetitive texts, putting it into a lower band.
In summary, the amount to be read is a very poor indicator of how difficult a read it is.
What is Lilac Band?
The lowest band in the original schema was Pink Band. As a result of demand from schools, some publishers now produce books for Lilac Band, which is a band below Pink. Lilac Band books are usually wordless, tell the story only through pictures.
Our Reading Stars programme includes 21 titles at Lilac Band.
(These books are also perfect as phonics readers, at Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds.)
From simple stories for children to retell in their own words to books that explore topics such as city sounds or festivals, these fiction and non-fiction readers are designed to develop children’s understanding about how stories/books work, without any reading of text getting in the way. The book also feature rich illustrations to stimulate discussion that will help build vocabulary and develop listening skills.
You can find out more about our Lilac Band books here.
Are there book bands higher than Lime?
The highest band in the original schema was Lime Band – but some schools found that some of their students had reached the top of Lime Band, but still needed to be offered levelled texts, rather than having free range in the library to choose anything they wanted to read (sometimes called ‘free readers’ or ‘real books’).
So there was a demand for book bands higher than Lime – and publishers responded. Unfortunately the response was not uniform across all publishers, and two sets of colour bands have emerged.
Most publishers, including Ransom, use the following bands after Lime: Brown, Grey, Dark Blue and Dark Red.
Some other publishers have adopted different colours. Collins Big Cat, for example, uses Copper, Topaz, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl.
At what rate should children progress through the bands?
The table below shows you the average age of children at each of the book band levels – but we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that in reality, there is no such thing as an average child.
Every child's reading ability moves at a different pace, so if your child is progressing slightly more slowly than their peers, don't immediately panic. But, if it continues, don't hesitate to ask their teacher whether they are eligible for additional support.
Do Book Bands work with books for reluctant and struggling readers?
The Book Bands system is a powerful and largely successful way of teaching people to read. Because it teaches the range of skills we use in ‘reading’ a book (the five criteria listed above), it is also valuable in teaching older, struggling and/or reluctant readers.
However there are a number of caveats to bear in mind:
Reluctant and struggling readers also usually have a higher interest age and a lower reading age. A twelve-year-old with a reading age of seven will not be best served by reading a book designed for a seven-year-old. Finding age-appropriate, properly levelled book-banded readers for older readers may therefore be a problem.
At the lower Bands (e.g. Pink and Red) the focus is very much on simple texts that use natural language and relate to the child’s immediate experiences. For a five-year-old child this works very well. The illustrations at this level usually directly illustrate the text as well, giving the reader vital help and giving them confidence. This approach risks running into problems with older readers, who are no longer five and are a bit more worldly wise. They may feel patronised by simple, highly repetitive natural language texts, especially when accompanied by simple illustrations. Teenagers are generally visually much more literate than five-year-olds, for example, no matter what their literacy skills.
Care must be taken therefore in using book-banded readers with older children, teenagers or adults. The system can work very well, but selecting inappropriate books can have an adverse effect.
That’s why we produced two series for this very need: Reading Stars Plus and Neutron Stars.
The books in these programmes take account of the requirements of older pupils for topics and illustrations which reflect their interests and age. In developing them, we also bear in mind older pupils will have more knowledge and ability to comprehend a topic, so there is some degree of flexibility build into the books to make them appealing to older pupils, while still providing the reading structure and support they require to develop basic literacy skills.
You can find out more about these innovative programmes below.
Can you band ‘real’ books?
‘Real’ books are books that are not part of a structured reading scheme. Instead, they are the kind of books you’d find in children’s bookshops, or in your school library.
And the answer is ‘yes’: we can and do band our non-reading scheme books.
It’s a great way to communicate their level of difficulty, and it also means that school staff can ensure children have access to ‘real’ books (i.e. the main source of encouragement for children to read for pleasure) that are suitable for their reading ability. For example, a ‘real’ book banded at Gold can be picked up and enjoyed by a child working at Gold Band.
It is, however, important to note, unlike reading scheme books, ‘real’ books have not been specially developed by
educational publishers to meet book band criteria. Rather, books are individually assessed to find the book band
where it ‘fits best’. The ultimate criterion is: Will someone currently working at this particular band be able to
read and enjoy this book?
You can download a list of our banded ‘real’ books (sorted by band) here.
We also sell these books in discounted, easy to buy collections. To start shopping, head here.
Who bands the books?
Our in-house literacy expert, Steve! Steve was trained by Shirley Bickler – founder of the Book Bands scheme and co-author of Book Bands for Guided Reading – and, as well as developing books for our various reading programmes, he bands books for other publishers too.
A guide to our book-banded readers
We produce three structured reading programmes that use the Book Bands for guided reading approach. You can find out more about each of them below.
Book-banded readers for 4 to 8 year-olds
Reading Stars Book Bands
A programme of 72 exceptional Book Band readers for Lilac to Lime, including both fiction and non-fiction, as well as a variety of texts types.
Book-banded readers for 9 to 14 year-olds
Reading Stars Plus Book Bands
AIdeal for Catch Up, this is a mini-programme of 18 age-appropriate book-banded readers for Pink to Orange (where the need for these books is greatest).
Book-banded readers for 13 to adult
Neutron Stars Book Bands
Ideal for Catch Up, this is a mini-programme of 18 age-appropriate book-banded readers for Pink to Orange (where the need for these books is greatest).
Further help with Book Bands?
Learnt a lot – but want to know more? Look no further than Unlocking the Reader in Every Child.
Brimming with practical ideas, this quick-to-read guide to teaching reading covers Book Bands – and beyond.