While amassing your summer reading resources, it might be helpful to keep in mind your child's reading level. You've surely heard your child's teacher say something like, "She's right where she needs to be," or "He's at J, which is perfect for the end of first grade." These statements are referencing the Fountas and Pinnell leveled (A-Z) reading pedagogy that's used in the NYC public school system.

While the important thing is for your child to read (and love it), there are benefits to reading “at level.” When a child is reading at level he/she is challenged without becoming discouraged; by keeping the reading difficulty within specific margins children can avoid plateaus and consistently progress while maintaining feelings of proficiency and confidence (this is probably especially so with beginning readers). The good news is that many books have been indexed, so there are hundreds of options per level.

Just a couple of the websites available that can help you either find books at your child’s level, or find out what level a book your child would like to read is, are:

Guided Reading Leveled Books Database, from A to Z Teacher Stuff

Leveled Books Lists

Beyond all of this, which is for you as parents, when choosing a book ask your child whether this is a “just right” book. (If you haven’t heard your child talk about this, ask). In my experience, the PS9 teachers use the “Five Finger Rule.” It goes like this: If the kids are not sure if the book is “just right” or not then they 1) open to a page of the book; 2) begin reading; 3) each time they come to a unfamiliar word, they hold up a finger; 4) after they finish reading the page, they see how many fingers they are holding up; 5) if they are holding up no fingers or one finger, then the book is too easy (the reasoning is that the meanings of many unfamiliar words can be deduced from context, building passive vocabulary); if they are holding up two or three fingers, then the book is “just right;” but if they are holding up four or five fingers, then the book is too hard (they will either skip too many words, rather than learning them passively, or, worse, give up in frustration). The important thing is that they love to read and that their choice of books encourages confidence in their reading and increases their abilities.

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade