I use a fine grading system to ensure that my students are reading books appropriate to their reading ability. I have successfully completed the training to deliver the ‘Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down syndrome’ (RLI), and am now an Accredited Trainer for the intervention. Book leveling is part of this intervention, but it was originally developed for use with dyslexic students.

The Cumbria Reading Intervention offers a research-based approach to book leveling that is more thorough than that typically used in book schemes in schools. It means that students can incrementally increase the difficulty levels of the books they are reading at a pace that suits them.

This area of the website contains book reviews of the books that I, my own children or my students have read and reviewed. These reviews are specifically designed to help parents and children choose books that are suited to their needs.

Below, you will find book reviews organised by level. I recommend reading within the same level until the child is fully confident, for example if they read a portion of the text to you, they won’t make any errors. Hatcher also advises that children are placed on a level where they are able to read around 97% of the words accurately. This helps with confidence, a sense of cohesiveness within the text, and reduces the burden of cognitive load.

Although many of my reviews of books in the lower levels provide some information about the phonic knowledge that will be required to access the book, my recommendation is that students follow a good quality phonic-based decodeable reading scheme, first, before following these levels. ‘PhonicBooks’, ‘Sounds Write’ decodeables and ‘Phonics For SEN’ decodeables are examples of such schemes, all of which are underpinned by principles from ‘linguistic phonics’ (sometimes referred to as ‘the Science of Reading’).

This is a work in progress, so some of the reviews are detailed, others less so. Some books have been uploaded to a level without any additional information - the priority being that the grading is available to other parents and educators. Sign up to my newsletter below, to hear when new books are added.

If you’ve found the information on this page useful, then please do consider making a donation to the Williams Syndrome Foundation, a small charity that supports families and individuals who are affected by WS.

If you are not sure which level to start on, or would like some additional support using this system, I can offer one off sessions that will establish levels, and suggest strategies and approaches that may be useful. Please complete the form on my website to access this support.

If you’re looking for a particular book, use search bar above to see if I’ve graded it.