Teachers should also be aware of the difficulty level of those books. Selecting a book that is too easy or too hard for the child will limit how effective that book may be in helping the child develop and sustain literacy skills. A book that is too easy might be enjoyable for the child, but won’t contribute to his vocabulary development. A book that is too hard might frustrate the child enough to turn him off of reading for a while. There is the “sweet spot” of difficulty, where a book is just hard enough to challenge the reading level, without being so hard as to as to overwhelm and frustrate the reading level. Texts should be at, slightly below, or slightly above child’s reading level. Guided reading (reading with a more competent reader) texts can be slightly harder since the child will have help with the text. Independent reading (reading alone) texts should be a bit easier since the child will not have help with the text.

 

Of course there are many sources of information in terms of a book’s difficulty level, including online and Accelerated Reading levels. Without this input, the teacher can determine difficulty level by assessing

• the ratio of pictures to words
• the difficulty of words
• the complexity of the story

 

(https://ci.keene.nh.us/keene-public-library/selecting-books-kids)