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Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Overall Picture

The number of quizzes taken declined by 4% to 26,114,262 (compared to a big increase last year) while quizzes passed were 21,055,356, a 5% decline on last year. The Average Book Difficulty Level (ATOS) was 3.6 (as last year), and the Average Percent Correct 0.73 on all Quizzes taken (a little lower than last year), but this would be higher on Quizzes actually passed.

Pupils steadily read more books each year in the first three years, reaching a peak in Year 3 at 34.7 books (7% less than last year). After this, the number of books read per year steadily declined. As older pupils read longer and harder books, this would be expected to a large extent. A similar trajectory is shown by the average number of quizzes passed.

As in many previous years, average book difficulty rose as pupils became older, but not in proportion to the rate at which the pupils should have been improving in reading. The Average Book Level was 3.6, just as last year. Average Book Difficulty rose until Year 9 (very slowly in the later years), then declined steadily thereafter, even though the older pupils should have been reading harder books. Even the rise in the lower years was not in proportion to the increasing age of the pupils. Throughout secondary school, pupils were still reading books at almost the same level of difficulty as upper primary pupils. It is still the case that if the older readers challenged themselves more, better reading outcomes could be anticipated. Against this has to be set the tendency for AR to move out of the mainstream in the later years of secondary school, more generally being used as an intervention resource.

Average Percent Correct (APC) on quizzes taken was in every year lower than that recommended by the software manufacturers. However, pupils in primary schools consistently showed a much higher APC (average 77%) than pupils in secondary schools (69%) – they were reading books with greater comprehension. These figures were much the same as last year. The effectiveness with which pupils were taking quizzes again seems worrying: 26,114,262 were taken, but only 21,055,356 were passed (a considerable decline, but the proportion remained the same at 81%, just as last year).

Pupils read a total of 238,617,533,743 words, an 11% decrease over the previous year, which featured a large increase. The average total words read also decreased to 187,658, a 10% decrease from last year.

We can now ask what books do children in each year read most often overall, while simultaneously considering the difficulty level of those books and differences in reading habits between the genders.

Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: By Year

Readers will notice that the gender-specific books are somewhat different from the general rankings – this is partially because gender was not given for a number of pupils.

Year 1

As last year, Donaldson’s The Gruffalo was the most popular book for both boys and girls, and her The Gruffalo’s Child was also highly placed for both genders. Roderick Hunt stayed the same at 12 books (see Table 6). Michael Rosen was also popular, especially with girls. Concerning difficulty (ATOS), the average was 1.9, very similar to last year. Pupils were generally reading over one and a half years above their chronological age or natural reading ability. APC was again 0.91 (the same as last year), so despite the books tending to be harder they were being read with a good level of accuracy. The APC was high even on many books of high readability for this Year. Overall, these pupils were reading these books very successfully, beyond the recommendations of the software producers.

Year 2

In Year 2, The Gruffalo was again for boys but had declined somewhat for girls, although The Gruffalo’s Child was highly placed for both. Donaldson had eight books in the top 20 (one more than last year). Martin Waddell’s Owl Babies did well, especially for boys. Roderick Hunt had further declined to only two in the overall top 20. Overall Average ATOS was 2.6 (just as last year) (Table 7). Both boys and girls were reading a year and a half above their chronological age. The average overall APC was 0.91, just as last year. Again, the APC was high even on some books of high readability for this Year.

Year 3

Year 3 was again dominated by Julia Donaldson, with seven books in the top 20, just as last year. Top place for both boys and girls was a competition between The Gruffalo and Dahl’s The Magic Finger, just as last year. Roald Dahl had five books (just as in previous years), and Francesca Simon had three books (one less than in previous years) (see Table 8). The difficulty level was high at 3.1 (UK years 4.2), just as in previous years. Children were reading books over a year above their actual Year level. Overall, APC was 0.89, just as last year.

Year 4

Year 4 saw Roald Dahl winning the battle with Jeff Kinney, taking five of the top six slots across the piece. Dahl took four of the top five places (similar to last year) and had six books in the top 20 (just as last year). Jeff Kinney again had eleven Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in lower places. David Walliams had declined again to one book this year (see Table 9). Again, there was much agreement between boys and girls about the top books. The average difficulty level ATOS was 4.8 (just as last year). The APC was 0.90, just as last year.

Year 5

Overall, Jeff Kinney dominated the table, taking the top 11 places and having 15 books in all. Roald Dahl had three books, and David Walliams had two books lower down (see Table 10). The overall difficulty level was 5.2, slightly higher than in previous years (equivalent to 6.1 in the UK). Pupils were still reading a year above their chronological age. APC was sustained at 0.91, much as last year.

Year 6

In Year 6, Kinney was completely dominant with 17 books, two more than last year, including the top 15 books punctuated only by Louis Sachar’s Holes (which was top for girls). David Walliams had two books low down, one less than last year. Boys and girls were still generally reading the same books (see Table 11). Year 6 pupils show much the same average difficulty as last year, the overall average being 5.4. Pupils in this year were reading very slightly above their chronological age. This is the last year at which pupils are reading at or above their natural age level. Likewise, both boys and girls still have a high Average Percent Correct (0.91), just as last year.

Year 7

Year 7 is the first secondary year (except in Scotland).

Jeff Kinney was again very popular with boys (16 books), but girls showed more interest in Alice Oseman (four books in the top seven). However, these latter books are of very low readability and unlikely to be developing reading skills in pupils of this age. Overall, Kinney has 12 books in the top 20, just as last year. J. K. Rowling remains a force with two books (just as last year) (see Table 12). The average APC stayed the same as last year at 0.88. The difficulty of books has also stayed much the same as last year at 5.1 (6.1 in UK terms), suggesting these pupils were reading at almost a year below their chronological age.

Year 8

Year 8 is the second secondary year (the first secondary year in Scotland).

Choices by boys and girls begin to diverge even more markedly at this age (see Table 13). George Orwell tops the boys’ list, but two Alice Oseman books top the girls’ list. Oseman begins to feature in the boys’ list and the girls’. Jeff Kinney’s books show a marked decline (eight books but none in the top five places). J.K Rowling has three books for girls but only one overall. Collins and Dahl also featured. The average ATOS, the figure was 5.2, much as last year. Pupils were reading almost two years below their chronological ages. Overall average APC was 0.87 for both boys and girls (as last year).

Years 9-11

As the number of pupils is smaller for Years 9-11, these years have been combined.

John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” remains very popular with both boys and girls (as in previous years). George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is also highly placed (as last year) but more popular with boys than girls. Coleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us was popular with girls. J. K. Rowling sustained her re-emergence with three books (down from four last year) (see Table 14). Jeff Kinney had eight books on the boys’ list (just as last year), but none on the girls’ list (just as last year). ATOS was 5.1, slightly down from last year. Thus, on average overall, these pupils were reading almost four years below their chronological age. APC was 0.88 (0,89 last year).

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