Find the right title for your young reader

Easy readers combine pictures and text to make reading an easy and enjoyable experience for new readers. They are specifically designed and written to support literacy skills. If reading is shown to be enjoyable, new readers will be more likely to continue throughout life.

What are Easy Readers?

• Created to help young readers.
• Very simple sentences and vocabulary words.
• The size of the books helps young readers hold them on their own.
• Usually have 32 pages.

EVPL organizes our beginning or easy readers into four areas.

Green: Getting Ready to Read → Reading to be shared with a Caregiver

• Simple books for beginners learning sounds, phonics, and sight words.
• Repetition and rhyming to help with word recognition.

Red: Beginning to Read → Reading with help from a Caregiver

• Readers connect words to understand the story.
• Longer stories.
• Simple and complex words.
• Less repetition and more unique words.

Blue: Reading with a Little Help → Beginning to read independently

• Ideal for confident readers ready for a challenge.
• More text and varied sentence structures.
• Provides less picture support and more complex storylines.

Orange: Reading on Your Own → Successfully reading on their own

• Helps readers transition to chapter books.
• More complex stories.
• Some books have short chapters.

Please remember:

• Everyone learns at different speeds.
• It is always okay to try books on other levels until you find the one that works best for your reader.
• The colors do NOT correlate with grade level.
• It is also always helpful to select books along their current level to build confidence and reinforce skills.

Why does EVPL use this system?

• Our Youth Services Staff do their best to group Easy Reader books into four colors: Green, Red, Blue, and Orange
• All of the publishers level their books. BUT they don’t use the same system! It can be very confusing.  
  • Example: One publisher’s Level C may be another publisher’s Level 1.
• EVPL staff members want to make it as easy as possible for caregivers and young readers to find a book that works for their level. 
• It is helpful to select books on the reader’s level to build confidence and reinforce skills.
• We chose star-shaped stickers because they are easy to spot on the books.

How do you pick the color for each book?

The staff has developed a system for finding the right color and/or level based on the language, content, and format of each book. 

1. Several members of our Youth Services Staff carefully read the book.  
2. The new title gets added to a Master document with a recommended color.  
3. Staff review the color to make sure we agree on the level.  
4. All copies of the book get the same color star added. 
5. It is placed on the shelf for checkout!

EVPL Staff

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With 8 locations throughout Vanderburgh County, EVPL is ready to discover, explore, and connect WITH you! We encourage you to uncover new things, revisit old favorites, and to engage with us along the way.