Reading-scheme books announce their band on the cover. The charity-shop haul, the hand-me-down crate and half the bookshelf do not. Banding them takes a minute a book once you know the tells.
Scheme books often state the band or level on the back cover or inside flap ("Blue band", "Level 4", a coloured cover strip). Publisher websites list levels for their reading series, and searching the exact title plus "book band" settles many mysteries — schools publish banded lists constantly. Only after the thirty-second check does judgement take over.
| Looks like… | Probably around |
|---|---|
| A handful of words per page, repetitive pattern, picture tells the story | Pink–Red (1–2) |
| One or two sentences per page, simple punctuation | Yellow–Blue (3–4) |
| A paragraph per page, speech marks doing real work | Green–Orange (5–6) |
| Pages of text, pictures becoming decoration | Turquoise–Purple (7–8) |
| Short chapters, reading silently happens naturally | Gold–White (9–10) |
| Proper chapter book, no picture safety net | Lime and beyond (11+) |
Calibrate against two or three books whose band you know, and accept that home banding is horseshoes, not surgery — one band either way is fine.
For a specific child and a specific book: read a page, a finger up per stumped word. None or one — comfortable; two or three — reading-together territory; four or five — back in the "soon" box, no drama. This beats any chart because it bands the pairing, not the paper.
Joke books, encyclopaedias, comics, the beloved dinosaur fact-book read nightly for a year: unbandable and un-put-downable. Label the practice books; leave the love alone.
General guidance, August 2026. CAAC.