Table 56 gives the top 20 titles for each Year. It is clear that every year, the top titles are quite different from those in the regular book lists and those in the Favourite lists. It may be that reading digitally encourages children to read completely new books and authors.
In Pre-school, four books were in the Henry Helps series. In Nursery, five books were in the Little Lizard series, and two were in the Animal Grows Up series. In Year 1, there were three Animal Grows Up books. Year 2 saw three Hidden Picture Puzzles books (which have no ATOS given their character) and two Animal Grows Up books. Year 3 was dominated by Zeke Meeks (eight books) and four Hidden Picture Puzzles books. Year 4 was even more dominated by Zeke Meeks with 13 books, just as last year, and two Hidden Picture Puzzles books. In Year 5 the Zeke Meeks influence decline to one book, and there were three Hidden Picture Puzzles books, two Survival Stories and two Legend stories. One book was specifically sub-titled Graphic Novel (although many other books were also graphic novels).
In Year 6, there was much more variety, with two books in the Haunted series, the appearance of Black Beauty and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Year 7 there was considerable variety and more classic titles began to appear, such as Kidnapped, Oliver Twist and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In Year 8 appeared Frankenstein, The Tempest, Dracula and A Christmas Carol. Year 9 had Romeo & Juliet (at number one) and Treasure Island, with three A Mermaid’s Journey books. Year 10 had The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Graphic Novel and three A Mermaid’s Journey books. Year 11 had Wuthering Heights with an ATOS of 11.3 (UK 12.3), so clearly, there are difficult books among the myON menus. Year 12 had The War of the Worlds at ATOS 9.1 and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at 7.8. However, it also had Buzz Beaker and the Speed Secret at ATOS 2.0.
In terms of difficulty, for preschool and Nursery, ATOS was high (1.7 and 2.1, UK 2.7 and 3.1), which might reflect the heavy use of audiobook facilities within this age range. For Years 1 through 3, ATOS for myON was also high but plateauing (3.0, 3.1, 3.1, UK about 4.1), so that by Year 3 students were reading only a year ahead of their chronological age. In Year 4, ATOS was again 3.1 (UK 4.1), so students were reading books just at their chronological age. In Year 5, ATOS was 3.5 UK 4.5), so students were reading books half a year behind their chronological age. In Year 6, ATOS was 4.2 (UK 5.2), so the gap was widening. In Year 7, ATOS was 4.7 (UK 5.7), so students were reading almost a year and a half behind their chronological age. In Year 7 ATOS was 5.7 (UK 6.7), so at least the gap was not widening. In Year 9 ATOS was 5.5 (UK 6.5), so again students slid backwards.
Thus, Pre-school through Year 3 showed high difficulty, possibly supported by audiobooks. Students read with myON above their chronological age from Year 1 through Year 4. Beyond this point, difficulty never kept pace with the increase in student age, albeit with some bouncing about. Overall, this is a worse situation than was the case with paper hard copy books. This may be because a number of these myON books were graphic novels, which tended to have lower readability.