Reading Planet: Understanding book bands

Reading Planet is a whole-school reading programme for ages 3-11 made up of a series of engaging books created to help children learn to read. Organised into levels by band or colour, the books progress in finely graduated steps of difficulty according to:
 

• amount of text per page
• layout of text
• overall length of book
• complexity of language
• factors such as sophistication of plot, characterisation etc
• phonics phase progression (for our decodable readers)

Children need to read books at the right level for their age and reading ability. If a book is too difficult, they will find it frustrating and may not want to read it. It could even put them off reading altogether. However, if a book is too easy, their reading ability won’t improve. Once a child can confidently and accurately read a number of books within a level, they can move onto the next one to further develop their reading skills.

Using colour bands which are shown on the book’s cover and spine allows teachers and parents to easily identify the appropriateness of a book for a child’s reading level. Book bands also allow schools to put together books from different reading schemes. Books within the same band colour/level can be paired together as they are appropriate for the same reading age.

Reading Planet includes more than 800 fiction and non-fiction books across a variety of themes including:
 

• traditional tales
• religious stories
• books about important figures from around the world
• thought-provoking and relevant topics that support the broader primary curriculum
• often untold stories that celebrate different communities
• characters and settings that represent all backgrounds
• inspirational real-life and fictional stories about people from different cultures, places and professions.

Having a wide range of books on different topics and genres helps children to develop their reading skills, gain confidence and learn more about the world around them.

Reading Planet books take children from first learning to read in early years settings (age 3) to becoming fluent, confident readers by the end of Key Stage 2/Upper Primary (age 11). Above all, Reading Planet inspires a life-long love of reading among children from a young age.

Early years and reception (ages 3-6)
 

• Lilac/Pink (Level 0-1B): wordless books or books with very short sentences focusing on picture clues and basic left-to-right tracking.
• Red/Yellow/Blue (Level 2A-4): introduces simple high-frequency words and short, repetitive sentence structures.
• Green/Orange (Level 5-6): longer sentences, simple punctuation, and early chapter or split-narrative structures.

Reading Planet books from Lilac+ to Orange band are levelled according to phonics decodability. They are also Lexile levelled and CEFR levelled. In addition, these books are mapped to the PYP and Cambridge curricula and to the Cambridge YLE tests.

Key Stage 1/Lower Primary (ages 6-7)
 

• Turquoise/Purple/Gold (Level 7-9): paragraphs grow denser and stories feature deeper character development, more complex plots and diverse layouts.
• White/Stars (Level 10-11): longer transitional chapter books that bridge early reading and fluent independent reading.

Band Assessment Quizzes (for bands Lilac to White) in Rocket Phonics Online help determine whether a learner is ready to move onto the next band.

Key Stage 2/Upper Primary (ages 7-11)

For Key Stage 2 levels, Reading Planet uses space themed names for the colour bands, as there isn’t a standard used across reading programmes. However, they can still be matched to the levels used in other schemes, as follows:


 

• Stars/Mercury/Venus/Earth/Mars/Jupiter (Level 11-16): advanced independent reading with sophisticated vocabulary, subtle humour, tension and fewer illustrations.
• Saturn/Supernova (Level 17-18): high-ability reading books handling complex themes supporting children to become independent readers.

These bands are grouped into the following Reading Planet strands:
 

• Lift-Off/Lift-Off First Words (bands Lilac-Lilac+, ages 3-4): beautiful wordless and first words books.
• Rocket Phonics (bands Pink-Orange, ages 3-6): a Department for Education validated programme that raises phonics attainment and develops wider literacy skills.
• Comet Street Kids (bands Pink-White, ages 4-7): action packed series featuring diverse characters. With strong links to the wider curriculum.
• Galaxy (bands Pink-White, ages 4-7): curriculum-linked fiction and non-fiction including poetry, playscripts and mystery stories.
• Cosmos (bands Stars-Supernova, ages 7-11): a vibrant collection of books for shared, guided and independent reading.
• Astro (bands Stars/Turquoise-Supernova/Earth, ages 7-11): high interest/low reading level fiction and non-fiction for struggling and reluctant readers. Graphic novels, magazine-style non-fiction and mini-series fiction. Designed for independent, shared and guided reading, plus reading intervention.

View our overview charts for ages 3-7 and ages 7-11.
 

We’ve pretty much cast aside all other reading schemes now as we assessed our other reading books and book bands against Reading Planet and found that other schemes didn’t match up.
Ancaster Primary School

Browse our books from the different strands in our catalogue. Speak to your local consultant to learn more and to discuss your requirements.