High-low books in Coventry Libraries

‘High-low’ books are available in all Coventry libraries. These are books that are suitable for children and young people with a lower reading age in comparison to their actual age or ‘interest’ age. Barrington Stoke is the main publisher for high-low books.

The books are shelved together with other reading books but can easily be identified on the shelves because they are very thin, and they have the Barrington Stoke name at the bottom of the book spine. Barrington Stoke have a fantastic website to support families and practitioners with information about their books. There are samples of text from their books so that a child could work out their ’reading age’ by reading different samples to find out which suits them best.

On the back of each Barrington Stoke book is a guide to explain the reading/interest age level of the book.

For example below RA8IA9+ would be Reading age 8 Interest age 9+. Another example below RA6.5IA 10-14 means Reading age 6.5 Interest age 10-14

Other publishers offering books suited to older children with a lower reading age include:

A&C Black Colour Graffix and Wired Up, Collins Read On, Wayland Funnies

These are all available in Coventry Libraries.