Resources

All Short Book series have now been leveled by us to correspond to Fountas-Pinnell and Reading Recovery Levels! Leveling The Short Books allows teachers to match the books to the reader’s ability. They can also be a useful tool for ongoing assessment and a measurement of reading growth and progress.

In general, all Short Books are useful for the pre-emergent (pre-reading) and the emergent beginning reader. Preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students benefit from these early readers.

The word count in these books range from 14 to 190 words per book. It has been our experience that the readers progress at a faster pace through the books in each series because the text is cumulative – the vocabulary in each book builds upon the next. The First Word Series (Red Books) are the simplest text appropriate for pre-emergent and the readers moving into the emergent levels. The Companion Books (White Books) provide additional practice in the same text as the red books but in a different format. These books serve the same readers. The Early Word Series (Green Books) are designed for the more emergent reader. Please refer to the book leveling equivalency chart for more detailed leveling information. The Next Word Series (Blue Books) are the most advanced as they fit the capability of more sophisticated kindergarten and average 1st grade readers.