Book banding

Book banding is a widely adopted system used by many schools to classify books based on their reading level complexity. The colour bands for reading enable teachers to assess children's progress, and books can be selected based upon the appropriate reading level to help children to develop and refine their reading skills as they progress through primary school.

The colour bands commonly begin at lilac (reception aged child, starting to share wordless books) and are available up to Dark Red (super-confident Year 6), and this colour standardisation has been adopted by many publishers. Books also banded black are books which provide stretch and challenge for those readers you have who are exceeding their year group expectations for reading.

Download our free Book bands: Progressive learning to read poster (PDF), linking book bands to school year groups and phonics phases. You can also visit our reading schemes for schools page for more information about the major schemes and series currently available.​

Browse book banded titles by book band level below.