S Y E A R What Kids Are Reading ANNIVERSARY
www.whatkidsarereading.co.uk I T I O D N E 2018 E D N I T I O 963,678 4,364 UK Primary & Secondary children schools
Discover B O O K S regional 18,044,078 variations
222,325,703,048 words
Reflections Most read Titles on Reading YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5 YEAR 6 YEAR 7 YEAR 8 YEAR 9-11 from popular children’s Authors
Top schools share Jeff Kinney Roald Dahl Roald Double Down Double The Twits The Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney The Gruffalo The Roderick Hunt Roderick John Steinbeck John David Walliams David The Magic Finger The Roderick Hunt Roderick Roderick Hunt Roderick Of Mice and Men Of Mice and David Walliams David Julia Donaldson Diary Kid: a Wimpy of their reading Gangsta Granny Gangsta Village in the Snow Village in the The Midnight Gang The Village in the Snow Village in the Diary Kid a Wimpy of Village in the Snow Village in the successes
Pick up your FREE Summary of the Key Findings! The Book-Reading Habits of Pupils in British and Irish Schools 2018
A summary of the findings of an independent study by Professor Keith Topping Professor of DownloadEducational the andfull report Social for Research, at www.whatkidsarereading.co.uk School of Education, University of Dundee.
whatkidsarereading.co.uk Contents
Introduction: Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK 3 About the Author, Professor Keither Topping 4 Foreword: Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust 5 How It Works 6 More about Renaissance Accelerated Reader 7 Summary of Key Findings 8 School Spotlight: Scoil Chríost Rí , Ireland 9 Reflections on Reading: Tom McLaughlin 10 Section One: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often 11-15 Reflections on Reading: Piers Torday 16 Section Two: Overall Popularity of Authors 17 Reflections on Reading: Julian Clary 17 School Spotlight: Florence Melly Community Primary School, England 18 Reflections on Reading: Gerard Siggins 19 Section Three: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often 20-21 Accelerated Reader Best Practices 22 School Spotlight: Mountain Ash Comprehensive School, Wales 23 Reflections on Reading: A.F. Harrold 24 Section Four: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often 25-26 How an Accelerated Reader Quiz is Written 27 Reflections on Reading: Alex Wheatle 28 Section Five: Most Read Non-Fiction Books 29-30 Reflections on Reading: Holly Bourne 31 Section Six: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading 32 School Spotlight: The Telford Park School and Telford Langley School, England 33 Section Seven: Voting for Favourite Books 34-36 Reflections on Reading: Julie Mayhew 37 Section Eight: Regional Variation in Reading Habits 38-39 Reflections on Reading: Peter Usborne 40 Full Conclusion and Recommendations 41-44
Appendices
-Appendix A: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Overall Summary 46 -Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 47-55 -Appendix C: Most Popular Authors 56-57 -Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 58-64 -Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 65-69 -Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: opT 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 70-76 -Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading 77-80 -Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 81-90 -Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 91-99 *Introduction, Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK
Welcome to the 10th edition of the What Kids Are Reading report!
We’re proud to present this 10th anniversary edition: the largest study of its kind into the reading habits of schoolchildren from across the UK and – for the first time – The Republic of Ireland.
Conducted by Professor Keith Topping, this year’s edition features data from almost 1 million children from well over 4,000 schools. Together, over the last academic year these children read more than 18 million books and 222 billion words.
So, on average: Just under 19 books each 230,712 words per student
Congratulations to them for their achievements!
Professor Topping’s research again provides unique insight into literary trends across year group, region, gender, non-fiction classification and ability. We’d also like to thank the celebrated authors who have taken the time to provide their reflections on reading, and the featured schools for sharing their literacy experiences. These schools represent a range of communities, and each of them has excelled in their approach to reading. Their successes include being shortlisted twice at this year’s Renaissance Awards, being one of the earliest adopters of Accelerated Reader in Ireland, and achieving extraordinary reading age growth in a short space of time.
Professor Topping’s research again provides a variety of unique insights, but also raises some pressing questions. The breadth and ambition with which primary school children read is encouraging, but again the stalling of reading progress on secondary transfer highlights the importance of reading encouragement, support and enjoyment throughout children’s education. Genuine concerns remain about children’s ability to access the curriculum in secondary school.
We hope these findings are of use and interest. We welcome your thoughts and hope you’ll share them with us – you can get in touch on:
Twitter: @AccReader Facebook.com/Accreader
Be sure to use #WKAR18 to join the discussion.
Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK
3 *About the Author, Professor Keith Topping
Keith Topping is Professor of Educational and Social Research at Dundee University. His published works exceed 300 (books, chapters, peer reviewed journal papers and distance learning packages), with translations into 12 languages. Prior to entering Higher Education he worked for a number of Local Education Authorities and for Social Services and Health. Keith’s own main research focus is Peer Learning (including peer tutoring, cooperative learning and peer assessment) and other forms of non-professional tutoring (e.g. by parents, assistants or volunteers) – in core skills (e.g. reading, spelling, writing, thinking skills, science, mathematics, information technology) and across subject boundaries, in all sectors and contexts of education and lifelong learning. He also has interests in computer aided assessment, peer assessment and formative assessment.
Renaissance UK is a leading provider of educational software for pupils of all ages and abilities. We use advanced technology to engage students with learning, motivate progress, and empower teachers. Renaissance Accelerated Reader is used by more than 1.3 million students at over 5,500 schools across the UK and Ireland. By personalising reading practice using over 31,000 online quizzes, Accelerated Reader encourages a lifelong love of reading for pleasure. Renaissance Star Assessments for reading and maths use short, computer-adaptive tests to personalise testing across all ages, accurately place students, and cut down teacher workload.
4 *Foreword, Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust
BookTrust is dedicated to getting children reading. We know that children who read are happier, healthier, more empathetic, and more creative. They also do better at school. Diana Gerald joined Book We get children reading in lots of different ways, but our Trust as Chief Executive in priority is to get children excited about books, rhymes and March 2015 from the Ark Schools Group, who stories. Because if reading is fun children are much more run schools in some of the most disadvantaged likely to want to do it. areas of the country. Diana joined at an important time in the development of BookTrust We’ve learned that starting early and involving the whole as it continues to build on its work to transform family is the best way to get children reading, so that’s lives by getting children and families reading, where we focus most of our work. Babies love books and and reinforces its position as one of the rhymes, and reading together isn’t just great for babies’ leading voices on reading. Diana has a deep brain development; it’s also a wonderful way for families understanding of the role that education plays to bond and spend time together. Reading with young in creating opportunity, which is at the heart of children also gives them the best chances in life by making BookTrust’s work. it more likely that they’ll enjoy reading themselves, as well as preparing them for school. Reading with children in their first few years leads to better educational attainment throughout their school life.
But as children grow up, the pressure is on to find books that engage and excite them and keep them wanting to turn the pages; even families who love reading sometimes need a bit of inspiration or might struggle to know what to read. That’s why reports like this are so important, and why our website is jam-packed full of family-friendly book reviews and information. It’s also why we’re proud to run campaigns like Time to Read aimed at getting families to find just ten minutes a day to read.
We want every child to have the best possible start in life. It’s why we work with schools, local authorities, publishers, authors, celebrities, bloggers and companies like Renaissance Learning to get the message out there that reading is fun, and that reading matters.
Children who read do better in life whether that’s educational attainment, confidence, communication skills, wellbeing or health. Simply put, reading matters. And together, we can really make a difference.
5 *How It Works
Renaissance Accelerated Reader is currently used in a small sample of text as with other formulae. ATOS can thousands of UK schools. It was designed to motivate be applied to all publications. In order to relate the ATOS reading for pleasure while giving teachers the tools to levels to the British system, ‘1’ would have to be added to track reading habits, comprehension and progress. Pupils bring the difficulty level up to English, Welsh and Northern read books of their individual choice and then take a quiz Irish Years and ‘2’ added to bring it up to Scottish P years. ensuring they understand what they have read. In the UK The interpretation takes this into account. over 31,000 quizzes are currently available and more than 150 are developed and added each month. An extremely As demonstration, ATOS was applied to about 30 broad range of books have been quizzed, both fiction and text samples from some common UK publications. non-fiction, including popular books such as the Harry Interestingly these common periodicals were not as Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, alongside classics such different in terms of their average readability as might as Pride and Prejudice and Gulliver’s Travels. In addition have been expected, but the range of readability of items to these reading practice quizzes, vocabulary practice within each one was considerable. An exception was Hello quizzes test a child’s understanding of particular words, magazine, which had many text samples within a narrow and literacy skills quizzes analyse 24 different areas of range of readability, as if its policy was to constrain higher order thinking skills. readability deliberately. The Economist had consistently high readability text. The differences in size of text sample Accelerated Reader gives immediate feedback on each were also interesting - the Sun had some shorter but also quiz to children and to teachers, and tracks scores, some longer pieces while Hello texts were even more difficulty level and overall comprehension over time. This varied. formative feedback gives pupils confidence, and helps teachers shape reading instruction and offer personalised The complexity of any text can be determined by the guidance. online ATOS Analyser at www.renlearn.co.uk/atos.
The ATOS Formula
Book difficulty level is determined by the ATOS formula. This is marked on the book, so pupils can make sure that they are choosing books that are not too easy or too hard – challenging without causing frustration. ATOS uses four factors to determine readability: average sentence length, average word length, word difficulty level and the total number of words in the book. The entire book is scanned and the formula applied to the whole book - not
Publication Reading Age Range Based on Word Count
The Economist 13.6 12.0 - 15.2 500 - 2,000 words The Times 12.7 11.0 - 15.1 500 - 800 words The Daily Mail 12.0 9.1 - 14.2 450 - 700 words The Sun 11.5 9.7 - 13.3 350 - 1,000 words Hello Magazine 11.4 9.5 - 13.3 250 - 2,000 words
6 *More About Renaissance Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader is a personalised practice and daily progress-monitoring system that helps teachers accurately and efficiently monitor pupil progress in quality (comprehension), quantity and difficulty of books read. Introduced in 1986, Accelerated Reader has become one of the most popular educational software programs in the world. While the programme has become increasingly sophisticated over the years, its basic three-step approach has not changed: First, a pupil reads a book either at school or at home. Next, the pupil takes a computerised quiz of 3, 5, 10, or 20 questions depending on the length of the book. Then, the pupil and teacher receive immediate feedback with their results, and can also access reports detailing books read, number of words read, book reading level and level of comprehension. Currently more than 31,000 books have been quizzed across all styles and genres, so pupils can read and quiz for the majority of the popular books available in their school or public libraries.
A Reading Practice Quiz - Accelerated Reader also includes quizzes to assess vocabulary and literacy skills along with voice quizzes for struggling or emergent readers.
Accelerated Reader BookFinder
Renaissance’s online book-searching tool, Accelerated Reader BookFinder, is publicly available and makes book selection easy.
Descriptions are provided for every quizzed book, and can be searched by a number of criteria, including level and genre.
www.arbookfind.co.uk
7 *Summary of Key Findings
The report considers the books read and quizzes taken by schoolchildren between August 1 2016 and July 31 2017.
Recommendations for the future seem clear. Pupils should be encouraged to: pass all quizzes, sustain a higher level of challenge in their reading on transfer to secondary school, and sustain Average Percent Correct at or above the 85% level on every book. Teachers should be aware of different pupil reading preferences, and the marked differences in preferences in secondary fiction and non-fiction between boys and girls. Even high-achieving readers need encouragement to sustain high challenge in their reading, especially in secondary. Struggling readers are seriously under-challenged in secondary, and their level of accuracy is low as well. Boys might profess more interest in non-fiction but need encouragement to read it carefully. Books popular with children should guide school purchasing decisions, with a greater emphasis on more challenging books in secondary.
The take-home messages of this report are thus:
The Good News:
1. Many more pupils are using Accelerated Reader quizzes – almost a million children participated this past year. 2. Pupils steadily read more books each year at the beginning of primary school, peaking at 36 books in Year 3. 3. Children consistently read above their chronological age throughout primary school, and non-fiction difficulty has risen dramatically. 4. For high achieving readers, book difficulty increased in Years 3,4,5,7 and 9.
The Less Good News:
1. Book difficulty drops off sharply in Year 7, with secondary students consistently reading behind their chronological age. 2. Secondary-aged boys were reading easier books than last year, but did not improve comprehension. 3. Comprehension was not good among struggling readers – many of the top 20 books were read at below 85% APC. 4. Non-fiction books read in secondary are two years behind chronological ages, and consistently display more male-dominated themes.
8 School Spotlight : Scoil Chríost Rí * Scoil Chríost Rí County Clare, Republic of Ireland
Scoil Chríost Rí is a primary school based in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. The school is one of over 60 schools in County Clare using Accelerated Reader, but was one of the first in Ireland to implement the programme, in 2011. Principal Gearóid Roughan describes the school’s reading approach and experiences with the programme.
In 2010 I completed a Master’s thesis on Accelerated Reader and its effects. The results of the thesis were very positive – in a class of 24, the majority improved in their attitudes towards reading, and made improvements in comprehension. Since then, we’ve expanded it into all our classes, from second through to sixth.
We’ve seen two major changes in literacy during this time: the development of a reading culture, and improved comprehension of books across the school. It’s commonplace to see children reading here during lunch, in the school yard, and carrying books with them always.
“Accelerated Reader is an integral part of our literacy programme. It’s allowing emergent readers to develop fluency, accuracy and rate of reading.”
- Conor Healy, Special Education Teacher
“I feel really proud of myself when I score 100% in a quiz.” “Accelerated Reader makes reading more exciting for me” - Erika, 5th Class pupil - Oran, 5th Class pupil
For the first 15 minutes of a literacy lesson, children read independently. Throughout the day, if any child finishes their work early in any subject they’re in the habit of taking out their book and reading. We’ve found that children read much more than they ever have before.
Using Renaissance Home Connect, parents can log in, see what their child is reading and view their progress. Our parents feel very positively about Accelerated Reader, and have noticed their children engaging with reading at home as well as school.
We always thought that children were reading, but never had the tools to document it, monitor it or assess it to the level we do now. Teachers can now see how many books are read, how many are understood and how difficult they are. It gives us a much better understanding of reading than we’ve ever had.
9 *Reflections on Reading: Tom McLaughlin
I’ll let you into a secret, I’m not very good at reading; as much as I love stories, the way I consume them can feel frustrating and disjointed - dyslexia will do that. It’s a bit like spending a couple of days crawling across the hot desert before stumbling across a cool lake just to be told you can only enjoy it one tiny sip at a time.
For a long time this put me off, I didn’t feel like words or books were for me. I didn’t feel clever enough to belong and as for picking up a book, well that desert looked awfully long and the sun felt awfully hot. But that’s when I discovered something: stories can be just a few sentences long, some books don’t need words sometimes, other don’t even have Having started life as a political cartoonist pages. and then an animator, Tom McLaughlin is now best-known for his picture books, Let me explain, I remember finding poetry for the first time including The Diabolical Mr Tiddles (Simon as a child and it changed my life, firstly it was short, not & Schuster), The Story Machine and The so much a hike across the Sahara as a stroll along beach. Cloudspotter (both Bloomsbury). His first Suddenly I felt like I belonged. I loved that poetry can be novel, The Accidental Prime Minister, was anything you like, they can be a joke, they can be an idea, shortlisted for 12 regional UK prizes. a story, something scary, something that makes you cry. For me it was a way in. A brilliant combination of levity and www.tommclaughlin.co.uk brevity, that allowed me a seat at the table. I was hooked! Twitter: @_TomMcLaughlin Instagram: _tommclaughlin Comic books were next, stories with no words - who knew that was a thing. It meant I could explore new worlds without the embarrassment of asking my parents how to pronounce different words, or what things meant. You see for a reluctant reader, all these little moments of anxiety add up and mean that you can allow yourself to give up. But once you’re in, you get time and space to explore stuff on your own and when you think about it, that’s the best thing about books, the fact that they allow you to be yourself, to go off the beaten track, to explore the worlds you want to explore. And if I needed help, a guide into another place, then I had audiobooks, someone else to tell the story, so I didn’t have to have to worry about the big words.
“That’s the best thing about books, the fact that they allow you to be yourself, to go off the beaten track, to explore the worlds you want to explore.”
The point is that all these things are out there, reading poetry lead to writing poetry, flicking through comic books lead to drawing, which set me on my way to becoming an author and it all started with a browse in a library. From books that you can draw in, to ones that take you by the scruff of your neck and fling you around the universe just using pictures, to having the greatest voices in the world telling you some of the best stories in the world. They are all there for us, and so while I still find reading hard, I have never been more in love with stories.
10 Section one *Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Overall Picture Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of What Kids Are improving in reading. Historically, difficulty has peaked in Reading. It is amazing that one piece of software could year 6 then plateaued until year 11, after which it declined. have such an impact on reading motivation in primary Last year, difficulty levels peaked in Year 9 (although this and secondary schools. Over the 10 years there has been year they are the same in Year 8). Last year’s improvement enormous growth in the use of Accelerated Reader. has been sustained this year. However, although difficulty level rises sharply each year in primary school, it doesn’t In 2009 we reported that Accelerated Reader was used rise very much in the first years of secondary school in 2,000 schools in the UK and 12,500 quizzes were (years 7-8). It declines in Years 11 and 12, when students available. We also reported that 29,751 students read suddenly start reading somewhat more books – so 273,016 books. it appears that these are low difficulty. There is still considerable room for improvement here. Now in 2018 we report that Accelerated Reader is used in 4,364 schools in the UK and 31,000 quizzes are available. Older pupils in Years 11, 12 and 13 are still reading easier This report summarises the efforts of 963,678 UK pupils books than upper primary pupils. Now there is not a who read 18,044,078 books and took their quizzes plateau after Year 9, but a decline in levels of difficulty. between August 1, 2016 and July 31, 2017 in schools It is still the case that if the older readers challenged across the UK (compared to 3,897 schools last year, so themselves more, better reading outcomes could be this year there are about 12% more schools than last year) anticipated. Against this has to be set the tendency for (see Appendix A table 1). Accelerated Reader to move out of the mainstream in the later years of secondary school, generally being used as Thus, compared to 2009, Accelerated Reader is used with an intervention resource. over twice as many schools (118%), with over 32 times more pupils (32.59) and has 250% more quizzes. Although Average Percent Correct (APC) on quizzes taken was the number of schools has increased enormously, the lower in every year than the rate recommended by the predominant trend is for schools owning Accelerated software manufacturers (see below), but was a little Reader to use it with more pupils in the school. higher than last year. Pupils in primary schools showed a higher APC than pupils in secondary schools – they Many more children participated in this research were reading books with greater comprehension. The compared to last year’s report (963,678 compared to highest APC was in Years 5-6, but in Year 7 it fell sharply 848,219 – 14% more). Participant numbers are nearing a and plateaued throughout the secondary school. This million. Boys were slightly more likely to feature than girls shows an increase on 2017 after a decrease following (399,603 cf. 383,594; 180,481 genders unknown) – just as 2016, so overall the picture is back to what it was two last year. years ago. The effectiveness with which pupils are taking quizzes seems worrying: 18,044,078 were taken but only Total quizzes taken (= books read) was 18,044,078 as 14,743,808 passed (82%), although it was a little higher compared to 15,087,017 last year (20% more). So while than last year. However, the APC figure is depressed by more children were participating, participating children the inclusion of quizzes which were not passed. If only were also quizzing on more books. By far the largest those quizzes which were passed are considered, the APC number of quizzes overall were taken by Year 7 pupils holds up to the 85% level recommended. (3,804,663), with Year 8 also quizzing heavily (2,196,072). Pupils read a total of 222,325,703,048 words, more than Pupils steadily read more books each year in the first the 193,163,631,338 words reported last year (15% more), three Year groups, reaching a peak in Year 3 at 36 books. but not showing such a large increase as was made last After this the number of books read per year steadily year. However, this is an impressive increase. The average declined. As older pupils read longer and harder books, total words read per pupil also rose from 228,073 last this is largely expected. In Years 12 and 13 a somewhat year to 230,712 this year (a 1% increase; smaller than larger number of books appear to be read, but the last year). Both these figures suggest that pupils were numbers of pupils contributing data at this age was quite tending to read longer books containing more words, but small, so this probably represents a small group of very not necessarily harder books. Pupil numbers in Year 1 enthusiastic readers. are smaller than other years but still a substantial 10,958. However, in Years 12-13 numbers are even smaller, so The average number of quizzes passed shows a similar some caution is needed in interpreting these figures. trend. This year there is again evidence that the number Overall, the pattern of quizzes taken and passed is more of quizzes taken is sustained at a high level in the first favourable than in the previous year, which itself showed two years of secondary school (Year 7 and 8, except in improvement. Scotland). This suggests a continued growth in use of Accelerated Reader in secondary schools. We can now ask what books children in each year read most often overall, while simultaneously considering the Average book difficulty rises as pupils get older, but not in difficulty level of those books and differences in reading proportion to the rate at which the pupils should be habits between the genders.
11 Section one *Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: By Year Year 1 Year 3 As in the last six years, in Year 1 Roderick Hunt performed For Year 3, there was much agreement between boys impressively, with 17 of the 20 choices in the overall and girls about the best four books: The Magic Finger, category (see Appendix B table 2), just as last year. Village The Gruffalo, Don’t Be Horrid Henry and The Twits, just in the Snow was the most popular book with both boys as last year. Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox was also and girls, and Castle Adventure followed closely behind. highly placed, just as last year, now joined by George’s Michael Rosen and Julia Donaldson had very highly Marvellous Medicine. Overall, Roald Dahl has five books in placed books for both boys and girls, just as last year. The the table (just as last year) and Francesca Simon has four Gruffalo was popular with both boys and girls, and Jill books in her Horrid Henry series (just as last year) (see Murphy also featured. This pattern of choice was essen- table 4 in Appendix B). The Gruffalo’s Child, Room on a tially similar to last year. Girls read Tara’s Party, The New Broom and Stick Man also feature here, as does A Squash Baby and Vanishing Cream more than boys, who found and a Squeeze, all by Julia Donaldson. The Go-Kart Race more to their liking – perhaps somewhat gendered preferences. The difficulty level is high, and as high for girls (3.1) as boys (3.1) (as last year) (overall 4.1 converted to UK Concerning difficulty (ATOS), boys improved further from years). Children were reading books over a year above last year (to 1.6 from 1.5) whereas girls stayed the same their actual Year level. APC showed boys at 0.89 (as last (at 1.6), so there was no gap between them (in UK terms year) and girls 0.90 (as last year). Year 2.6). Pupils were generally reading at one and a half years above their chronological age or natural reading Year 4 ability. APC was high and equal for both boys and girls In Year 4, again there was much agreement between boys (0.90), just as last year. The APC was high even on some and girls about the top books: The Twits was highest books of high readability for this Year. Overall, these pupils for both boys and girls, followed by The Magic Finger, were reading these books successfully, much in line with George’s Marvellous Medicine and Fantastic Mr Fox - all the recommendations of the software producers. Roald Dahl books, much as in previous years. Dahl’s Esio Trot was also highly placed, especially for girls (as last Readers will notice that the gender-specific books are year). Below this, Jeff Kinney had eight Diary of a Wimpy somewhat different from the general rankings – this is Kid books (the same as last year) and David Walliams had partially because of a number of “gender unassigned” four (also the same as last year) (see table 5 Appendix B). pupils. In this year, boys (ATOS 4.8) were reading harder books Year 2 than girls (4.5), although in both cases the figures had In Year 2, The Gruffalo is top for both boys and girls (as increased from the previous year and in turn from the year in the past three years), but now it is accompanied (for before that. Children were reading well over a year and a both boys and girls) by The Gruffalo’s Child. Owl Babies, half above their chronological age. This is a particularly We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Peace At Last are also striking outcome at this age. APC was similar for boys popular with both boys and girls. Again, Roderick Hunt (0.90) and girls (0.91), satisfactorily high and much the does very well with six books overall in the top 20 (seven same as last year. last year), and more popularity with boys (10 books, as last year). Stick Man and Room on the Broom by Julia Year 5 Donaldson have maintained their positions after arriving in Popular titles in Year 5 were mostly Jeff Kinney books the list last year (see table 3 in Appendix B). There were no (eleven in the top 20, one up from last year), although startling new arrivals this year. these were slightly less popular with girls. David Walliams (six books) and Roald Dahl (three books) make up the ATOS was 2.1 for boys (the same as last year), but for remaining places. Kinney and Walliams have consolidated girls it shot up from 2.4 to 2.7. This increase in ATOS is their presence. New books by Walliams (The Midnight to be welcomed, but it is a pity the boys did not show a Gang and The World’s Worse Children) and Kinney (Double similar gain. Thus boys were reading on average slightly Down) appear in the chart for the first time (table 6 in over a year above their chronological age, while girls were Appendix B). reading a year and a half above their chronological age. Boys had an average APC of 0.89 (the same as last year) The overall difficulty level was 4.9 for boys and 4.9 for while for girls it was 0.92 (a slight increase on last year). girls, just as last year (equivalent to 5.9 in UK equivalents). Again, the APC was high even on some books of high Pupils were still reading almost a year above their readability for this Year. chronological age. In Year 5, boys (0.91) and girls (0.92) performed well in term of sustaining APC (slightly higher
12 Section one *Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: By Year for girls than last year). Boys had one book quizzing below Pyjamas by John Boyne, and Private Peaceful by Michael the 85% criterion, as last year, while girls did not have any Morpurgo appear for both boys and girls (the first two (better than last year). returning from last year) (table 9 Appendix B).
Year 6 Overall APC was 0.83 for boys and 0.87 for girls, quite In Year 6, David Walliams tops the chart with The Midnight dramatically down for boys and slightly down for girls, Gang (his new book), closely followed by Kinney with compared to last year. For boys this figure is below the his new book Double Down. Kinney (eleven books – one 85% criterion. For average ATOS, the overall figure was 5.2 up from last year) and Walliams (eight books, the same for girls and 4.9 for boys, slightly increased for girls and as last year) dominate the chart. Roald Dahl has been slightly decreased for boys compared to the previous year. pushed down to one book. Boys and girls were primarily Pupils were reading two years below their chronological reading the same books (table 7 in Appendix B). ages. APC indicated three books for boys with APC Year 6 pupils largely show the same average difficulty below 85% (one better than last year) and four for girls as last year, with boys increasing their ATOS scores to (two better than last year). This suggests that boys were be on a par with girls (both 5.1, UK equivalent 6.1). Boys reading easier books than last year (and certainly easier (0.92) and girls (0.93) still have high average percent books than girls). Despite this, they were not really scoring correct, with both boys and girls slightly up from last year. any higher on these easier books. Neither boys nor girls were reading any book in the top 20 below the recommended APC level, which is a distinct Years 9-11 improvement on last year (when girls had one book As numbers of pupils are smaller for Years 9-11, these below APC .85 and boys had two books below APC .85). years have been combined. Pupils in this year were reading very slightly above their chronological age. This is the last year at which pupils are John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains very popular reading at or above their natural age level. with both boys and girls, being top of the list for both (as last year). An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley is also Year 7 popular with both boys and girls. Jeff Kinney has eleven Year 7 is the first secondary year (except in Scotland). books in the boys’ list (four more than last year), but none in the girls’ list. Girls have Zoe Sugg in the second, third Gangsta Granny by David Walliams is the top book overall, and fourth places, but Sugg does not appear in the boys’ and Walliams has six further books in the list (as last list. There appears to be a more distinct division this year year). Kinney has eleven books in high places overall between boys favouring Jeff Kinney and girls favouring (one more than last year), but is less popular with girls Zoe Sugg. These books are on a similar level in terms of (appearing seven times). Dahl has two overall (as last difficulty (if anything Jeff Kinney is slightly harder), so this year). Zoe Sugg now appears only for girls, with Girl Online should not have affected the other results (see below). J. being joined by On Tour (table 8 Appendix B). K. Rowling reappears for girls with four books, and as J. K. Rowling books are harder this may have affected the other Two books for boys and two for girls have an APC of less results. David Walliams has two in both the girls’ and boys’ than 85%, the same as last year. Average APC remains list. Suzanne Collins remains popular with both boys satisfactory (0.88 for boys as last year and for girls 0.89, and girls. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon makes up a little from last year). The difficulty of books averages an appearance in the girls’ list. No non-fiction book has 5.0 (6.0 in UK terms) for both boys and girls, the same as appeared in any of these charts (table 10 in Appendix B). last year, but still suggesting these pupils are reading at over a year below their chronological age. On average overall these pupils were reading at least three years below their chronological age. ATOS was 5.3 Year 8 for boys (slightly higher than last year) and 5.2 for girls Year 8 is the second secondary year (first year in (as last year). APC was slightly higher for boys (0.88) and Scotland). slightly lower for girls (0.87) than in the previous year. Boys had four books which did not meet the 85% criterion Choices by boys and girls begin to diverge more markedly (two better than last year), while girls had three (two better at this age. Boys have Jeff Kinney books in the first eleven than last year). places (compared to the first eight places last year), while girls have Zoe Sugg’s three books in the first four places. Boys have four David Walliams books in the top 20, while girls have six. Roald Dahl makes two appearances for girls but only one for boys (much as last year). The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Boy in the Striped
13 Conclusion from Section 1
1. In its 10 years of reported use in the UK, Accelerated Reader has grown to more than twice the number of schools. More startlingly, from 29,751 students reading 273,016 books ten years ago, use has grown to 963,678 students (a 32- fold increase) and 18,044,078 books (a 66-fold increase). Thus although many more schools are using Accelerated Reader, the predominant trend is for schools owning Accelerated Reader to use it with more pupils in the school.
2. The number of quizzes available in Accelerated Reader has risen from 12,500 ten years ago to 31,000 in 2018 (a 250% increase).
3. In 2018 almost a million children participated and boys were slightly more likely to feature than girls.
4. Total quizzes taken (= books read) rose by more than 20% compared to the previous year, while the number of students participating rose by only 14%. So while more students were participating, they were also quizzing on more books per pupil.
5. By far the largest number of quizzes per year was taken by Year 7 pupils (3,804,663) and Year 8 was also high on this factor (2,196,072). So the first two years of secondary (except Scotland) use Accelerated Reader more than elsewhere.
6. Pupils steadily read more books each year in the first three years, reaching a peak in Year 3 at 36 books. After this the number of books read per year steadily declined. As older pupils read longer and harder books, this would be expected to a large extent.
7. Average book difficulty rises as pupils get older, but not in proportion to the rate at which the pupils should be improving in reading. Difficulty level rises sharply each year in primary school, but it does not rise very much in the first years of secondary school (years 7-8). It then declines in Years 11 and 12, when you will recall children suddenly start reading somewhat more books – but it appears that these are at an easy level. Older pupils in Years 11, 12 and 13 are still reading easier books than upper primary pupils.
8. Pupils in primary schools showed a higher APC than pupils in secondary schools – they were reading books with greater comprehension. The highest APC was in the last two years of primary school, but in the first year of secondary school it fell sharply and plateaued throughout the secondary school.
9. This year pupils read 222,325,703,048 words – a dizzying amount!
10. In Year 1, pupils read at one and a half years above their chronological age – but with high comprehension. In Year 2 boys read at a year above their chronological age, but girls showed a big increase in book difficulty and were reading at a year and a half above their chronological age. For Year 3 both boys and girls were reading a year above their chronological age. For Year 4 children were again reading well over a year and a half above their chronological age – the children and teachers for this Year did particularly well. For Year 5 children were reading at a Year above their chronological age. For Year 6 pupils were reading very slightly above their chronological age. This is the last year at which pupils are reading at or above their natural age level.
11. At secondary level, it is a different story. In Year 7 difficulty of books has barely gone up and pupils were reading at over a year below their chronological age. In Year 8 pupils were reading two years below their chronological ages and comprehension had declined, especially for boys. This suggests that boys were reading easier books than in 2017. Despite this, they were not really scoring any higher on these easier books. In Years 9-11 pupils were reading at least three years below their chronological age. Additionally in each Year an increasing number of even top 20 books were read at below the minimum APC recommended, indication poorer comprehension.
12. Figures 1 and 2 show the pattern for ATOS and APC over the Year groups.
14 Figure 1: ATOS over Years 1 through 9-11
Figure 2: APC over Years 1 through 9-11
15 *Reflections on Reading: Piers Torday
What is the pleasure that children can get out of books, in a way that makes them want to return time and time again to words on a page? As a children’s author, what’s my process to try and create that value? I don’t just mean education, social, or literary value but human value – because, in that, I believe, lies the main pleasure from reading.
The feeling that, as a child, you are not alone. Others not only once felt the same way you do now, but have felt Piers Torday began his career in theatre and things you are yet to feel. The realisation that together, then television as a producer and writer. His people can achieve great things, even the impossible. The first book for children, The Last Wild, was awareness that there is space in the world for every kind shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book of person and creature. The realisation that one day, you Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie might just be old enough to do anything you want. Medal. The sequel, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Other books I am often asked “Is writing full length fiction for children include The Wild Beyond and The Death of an any different to writing for adults?” After all, parents and Owl (with Paul Torday.) His adaptation of John grandparents make up tales for their little ones at the Masefield’s The Box of Delights opened at drop of a hat, why are you making such a song and dance Wilton’s Music Hall in 2017. He lives in London about it? with his husband and a very naughty dog.
Well, children are different. I know it sounds obvious, www.pierstorday.co.uk but they are. Yes, they are young adults in transition, but Twitter: @PiersTorday they see the world through young eyes. Child narrators Instagram: piers_torday are often unreliable, with good reason. They don’t instinctively see half the motives and cynicism in adult actions and words that we do. They are often discovering experiences we take for granted - from train journeys to trifle, love to loss, pain to pirouetting - for the very first time.
“I try hard not to sacrifice literary style or quality for authenticity. It’s about capturing the tone or mood of that experience.”
I try and remember what that was like, but at the same time I try hard not to sacrifice literary style or quality for authenticity. It’s about capturing the tone or mood of that experience…we sometimes make our child narrators more articulate, more insightful, more ironic and profound than the real thing. Otherwise why read the story?
In the end, what I think most children wish, more than anything else, is to be older. To be independent and free. And like all such desires, as the stories teach us, be careful what you wish for. A good read, a pleasurable book, will grant that wish in every way. For an hour or two, you can be older. And wiser, and braver, and happier, and sadder, and angrier – hey, even more responsible if you wish! The gradual awakening that the imagination is a passport to a decades long journey of self-discovery - well, if you can grow that, then you have grown a reader for life.
16 Section two *Overall Popularity of Authors and Books
Considering those authors mentioned more than once in the Overall top 20 in each Year group, we find they aggregate as follows (see Table 11 in Appendix C).
Jeff Kinney remains most popular author with an increased number of mentions (60). David Walliams is at number two, sustaining his 31 mentions from last year. Roderick Hunt is at number three, just one down at 24 mentions, but of course his books are all for young children.
Roald Dahl is at number four, although his mentions are down to 20 (from 23 last year). Julia Donaldson stays at number five, and her mentions now total 14 (one up from last year). Francesca Simon stays at number six, although her mentions have declined by one. At number 7 J. K. Rowling shows a re-emergence with three mentions, together with Martin Waddell who had three mentions last year.
Joint eighth on two mentions are John Boyne, Suzanne Collins, Judith Kerr, Jill Murphy, Michael Rosen, Dr. Seuss and Zoe Sugg – all as last year except for Zoe Sugg who has declined from four mentions.
Considering the most popular books mentioned in the overall top 20 in each Year group, we find they aggregate as follows (Tables 11a,b in Appendix C), divided into Primary and Secondary.
In Primary schools, Roald Dahl’s The Twits is top (as last year). David Walliams is second with his new book The Midnight Gang (and he is also at number seven with Gangsta Granny). Roald Dahl surges back with four books, three more than last year. Jeff Kinney has four books towards the bottom of this list, a considerable decline on seven last year. His new book Double Down doesn’t quite make it into this list (or indeed the secondary list below).
In Secondary schools, David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny has made it to top place (second last year) (this book also appears in the Primary list). Walliams has two other books in the top 10. The other places are all occupied by Kinney.
*Reflections on Reading: Julian Clary I like reading most on holidays, when you can immerse yourself in a book all day without being interrupted by annoying things like school or parents.
Reading is escapism and entertainment for me. I like to be transported, to laugh and cry and care about the characters. then at the end of the book, feel I have experienced and learnt something useful.
I loved Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Sorry to report I don’t like sharing my books…you don’t always get them back! And if you do they might have bits of marmalade stuck between the pages. Ugh.
Julian Clary is a comedian, entertainer and novelist, who has toured across the world with his one-man shows. He became a household name in the late 1980s, and remains one of the country’s most popular entertainers. He lives in Kent with his partner, dogs and several chickens.
www.julianclary.co.uk Twitter: @JulianClary
17 School SpotlightFlorence : Scoil Melly Chríost Community Rí * Primary School Liverpool, UK
Florence Melly is a mixed primary school, based in Liverpool, with over 400 pupils on roll. Head Teacher, Ken Heaton and Year 6 Teacher, Nikki Bear, discuss the school’s approach to reading following their implementation of Accelerated Reader in September 2016.
“I love that reading can transport you into a different world.” - Abbie, Year 6 pupil
“Accelerated Reader has definitely got children reading who weren’t reading before. I think it’s brought reading for pleasure to the forefront of all our minds.”
- Barbara Heaton, Librarian
Children at our school want to read now – we’re seeing a lot of improvements in the quality and regularity of reading. We’re seeing the changes in these habits carry through improvements to their writing, vocabulary and imagination.
We schedule half an hour of reading every day. We use Accelerated Reader, and encourage children to be as independent as possible with their reading. They can quiz any time they’ve finished a book, and then select another within their ZPD range, where they can access the text but will still be challenged by it.
Reading can sometimes be difficult to assess, but now we can see who is reading, what they’re reading and what they’re understanding, we’re much better placed to support children as individuals and build confidence.
Taking quizzes on what they’ve read has been a really positive habit to develop. It helps to develop their ability to summarise and recall information – universally useful skills, particularly in giving them confidence when preparing for the current Reading SATs.
As a school we’re at an early stage with our new reading “I think Accelerated Reader is really good because approach, and are moving to embed it and maintain it tests how well you’ve read the book.” consistency. We want to enshrine a long lasting culture of loving reading throughout the school. - Abbie, Year 6 pupil
18 *Reflections on Reading: Gerard Siggins
I suppose I’ve been luckier than most. I’ve had three childhoods, or rather three large chunks of my life when I got to read the most wonderful books written for the smallest people in the house.
Nowadays, when I visit libraries, I amaze the children by showing them how few books for kids were in my library when I was their age – typically about 20% of modern shelf space. By age 10 I had devoured all the classics, plus the Blytons, Buckeridges, and Norman and Henry Bones, Gerard Siggins was born in Dublin and necessitating a leap straight into the adult section without has lived almost all his life in the shadow the cushion of YA. of Lansdowne Road; he’s been attending rugby matches there since he was small My second age came as a father, when I discovered the joy of enough for his dad to lift him over the reading aloud. Bedtimes were truly magical for me, and there turnstiles. He is a sports journalist and are few better sights than a child enraptured by words. It was worked for the Sunday Tribune for many fascinating to see how children’s literature had leapt forward years. from the 60s to the 90s, and there was never any shortage of choice in library or bookshop. His other books about rugby player Eoin Madden, Rugby Spirit, Rugby Warrior, I remember my daughter Lucy being entranced by a TV Rugby Rebel, Rugby Flyer and Rugby documentary about volcanoes, and finding a Ladybird book Runner are also published by The O’Brien on the subject that was perfectly pitched. She was the only Press. Gerard is also the author of Rugby five-year-old that year who told teacher she was going to be a Roar, Ireland’s 2018 World Book Day book. vulcanologist – although she’s now a bookseller! www.obrien.ie/gerard-siggins With three children, bedtime stories had to be timetabled, and although the night you set them adrift with their own book was a little sad, it’s also what reading – and parenting – is all about.
The best fun was the ‘lights out story’, which came after reading a chapter or two. That was when we found other worlds – in the case of Lucy a long-running tale of the little girl’s bed that could fly if you twisted the bed-knob a certain way. The moon and India were favoured destinations.
My last ‘lights out story’ was aimed at Billy, a then-hopeless but mad keen footballer who loved sports stories. I told him a story of a hopeless but mad keen footballer who met a ghost “As a parent it’s exciting to see in a stadium and, through advice and his own hard work, became a Premier League star. your offspring discover new things about the world, and to That story lasted over a year and I would often get home from work at 7pm to find Billy sitting at the bottom of the kindle that interest with a book.” stairs in his pyjamas, mustard keen for the next instalment.
One night, as the story needed its end, Billy told me “You Now I read my own books aloud to children in should write that down dad, it would make a great book.” schools and libraries, and at home still read the most amazing children’s books. So, with a few tweaks and a change of sport, I did. And Billy’s bedtime story spawned a series of seven books and a whole Long ago, a teacher told me that I couldn’t be a writer new life direction. unless I was a reader. It’s advice I treasure.
19 Section Three *Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often
In this section we consider the books read by high-achieving readers - defined as pupils who were reading at two or more years above their actual chronological age. Numbers in the lowest and the highest years were insufficient, so Years 1-2 and 10-13 are excluded. The books preferred by the most able readers were of interest. Did they show a different pattern from regular readers, and how did the children sustain a high difficulty level, especially in the later years? Refer to Appendix D for details.
Year 3 higher than last year (UK years 6.8), indicating these In previous years this list was dominated by Roald Dahl, pupils were reading more than one and a half years above and this is still the case, with Dahl holding the first four their actual Year (although their ability was at least two positions and having six other books in the top 20. This years above). The APC figures are high, each book well is much the same as last year except Dahl’s books have above 85% and the average 0.94 (the same as last year). moved higher. Jeff Kinney is second with eight books, an increase of two from last year. David Walliams has two Year 6 books (compared to five last year). J.K. Rowling features David Walliams is at number one with his new book twice in this list despite her relatively difficult books. The The Midnight Gang. He has two other books in this list. quiz results show that these young children manage to However, last year he had five mentions. Jeff Kinney has read her books with high comprehension (table 12 in nine mentions, one more than last year. His latest book is Appendix D). at number two. J K Rowling increases her position from last year with eight mentions, all in high positions (table The average ATOS difficulty equivalent is the same as 15 Appendix D). last year at 5.1 (UK years 6.1), considerably higher than the year before (4.8), indicating these Year 3 pupils were In Year 6 we see only a little increase in difficulty, so the reading three years ahead of their chronological age. All pupils in this year are now reading only at the 5.8 level, books were at or above the Year 3 + 2 level of difficulty (as as last year. This is eight months over their chronological last year). The Average Percent Correct was 0.93 for all age. APC remains high at 0.94 (as last year), no book books, the same as last year. falling below the 85% criterion.
Year 4 Year 7 Kinney sustains his position as the most dominant author, Suzanne Collins has two books including the first in the having eleven books, more than the eight last year. J K list, but is less popular than last year. J. K. Rowling is still Rowling has four books, sustaining her revival. Walliams a considerable force, with eight books in the top 20 (three has sustained his presence with five books (as last year). more than last year). Jeff Kinney also has eight books in Dahl has disappeared from the list (table 13, Appendix D). the list, but in lower positions, two more than last year. Walliams has declined to two books, one down from last The average ATOS difficulty equivalent is 5.5 (UK years year. 6.5), slightly increased from the previous year. These pupils were reading two years and a half years above their The average ATOS has increased from last year to 5.7 (6.7 age. APC was 0.95 (very high), even higher than last year, in UK terms), perhaps the Rowling effect, indicating that with no book falling below the 85% criterion. these pupils who are able to read at least two years above their age are actually reading six months below their age. APC is 0.92 (slightly increased from last year), declining Year 5 but still satisfactorily high. No book falls below the 85% David Walliams has the top book and two other books, criterion. but this represents a decline from last year when he had six books. Jeff Kinney has eleven books in the list (an Year 8 increase from seven last year). This popularity is perhaps Suzanne Collins sustains her improvement somewhat, slightly unfortunate, since the ATOS for most of the retaining the number one position, but she now has only Kinney and Walliams books is below the average for this two books in the list rather than three. J K Rowling has table. It would be good if these books were more popular greatly improved her position with eight books, compared with younger pupils and less popular with these pupils. J. to four last year, including places two through five. John K. Rowling has six books (as last year), and these books Boyne, Veronica Roth, James Dashner and Zoe Sugg all are of high difficulty and entirely suitable for high-ability have one book in the list (a marked decline for Dashner readers (table 14 Appendix D). and Sugg). Ransom Riggs has appeared with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Jeff Kinney has The average ATOS difficulty equivalent is 5.8, significantly declined further with only one book (table 17 Appendix D).
20 Section Three *Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often
The difficulty of books read has increased considerably In Year 9, ATOS has improved again slightly from last year from the level of last year (5.5) to 5.9 (UK 6.9). These to 5.8 (UK 6.8). Pupils were reading more than two years pupils were reading almost two years below their actual below their chronological age, when their ability was to Year (although their ability was at least two years above). read two years above it. APC average was 0.91 (the same APC increased slightly from the previous year at 0.92, with as last year) and no book was below the 85% criterion. no book having an APC below 85%.
Year 9 Of Mice and Men remains top, but its readability is quite low. J K Rowling is resurgent with eight books mostly in high positions (compared to five last year). Suzanne Collins has two books but they are widely scattered across the top 20. James Dashner, Veronica Roth and John Green have one book, a decline in all cases from last year. George Orwell’s Animal Farm has sustained its position, noteworthy as it has such high readability. Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children appears again, and is joined by Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, both new entrants (table 18 Appendix D).
Conclusion
Jeff Kinney easily tops the high achieving list with 48 mentions, a substantial increase on last year. However, J. K. Rowling is now pushing him hard, with 44 mentions, another substantial increase (from 32). David Walliams is in third place, with 13 mentions, many fewer than last year (24). Fourth is Roald Dahl with 10 mentions (slightly down on last year). Suzanne Collins comes next with six mentions – substantially down on last year (10). James Dashner has five mentions (two less than last year). John Green and Veronica Roth come next with four mentions (a slight decline for Roth). Zoe Sugg has declined to one book (from three last year).
Difficulty of books shows considerable change for the better. It was considerably increased in Years 3, 5 and 8, and somewhat increased in Years 4, 7 and 9. Only in Year 6 had it plateaued. But while younger children read well above their chronological age, older children (even those with high reading ability) read well below it. APC in general was adequate – although this is perhaps not surprising when the difficulty of books is still low compared to chronological age, as was the case in the upper years.
21 *Accelerated Reader Best Practices
Best Practices are research-based recommendations which ensure that teachers make the most of the wealth of data Accelerated Reader provides. This may require changes in teacher, classroom and even school practices. More time for in-school reading, individualised target setting and careful monitoring of reading comprehension are often required.
Renaissance recommends 30 minutes of daily independent reading practice for primary schools and 20 minutes of daily independent reading practice for secondary schools, and that students on average score over 85% in quizzes. Following these Best Practices is instrumental to fidelity of implementation, making sure that pupils benefit from reading practice to the greatest extent possible. Extensive research has shown it is not just the quantity of reading or time spent reading that helps pupils read well and become well read. It is also the quality of reading; the level of comprehension. The more carefully pupils read, the more they comprehend, and the more their reading practice leads to improved reading achievement.
An independent study conducted in 2016 showed that students following Best Practices with Accelerated Reader displayed significantly greater reading growth than those who did not.
Download here
22 School SpotlightMountain : Scoil Ash Chríost Rí * Comprehensive School Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales
Mountain Ash Comprehensive School is a Secondary school with over 800 pupils on roll, based in Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales. Lauren Mackie, Assistant Head, and Karen Siminov, Literacy Coach, describe how the school’s reading culture has changed since September 2016.
Everyone in Key Stage 3 is now reading – we have students recommending books to each other, using the library in their spare time, and have received many positive comments from parents on the changes they’ve noticed in their children’s reading habits.
We’re situated in one of the poorest regions in Wales, and many of our students’ reading ages on entry are quite low. In 2016 we decided to introduce Renaissance Accelerated Reader as a means to encourage students to read a bit more.
We keep iPads in the library and English classrooms for quizzing, and dedicate the first 20 minutes of each daily English lesson to reading. “My child hasn’t read so much in years, I only Since then we’ve seen hugely improved enthusiasm wish it had come about sooner!” and engagement with reading. They receive immediate feedback on their reading now, which opens up a - Parent of a Mountain Ash student conversation as soon as they’ve quizzed. It’s brilliant for them and us – as well as giving them confidence it offers us the chance to discuss reading with them and guide their choices to ensure they read widely but maintain their interest.
We’re now placed to celebrate reading accomplishments – reading millionaires, 100% quiz results, and bolster students who aren’t always used to receiving prizes and awards.
The whole ethos of the school has improved, we’re so much happier with reading here.
We’ve seen such an improvement in a short space of time, and are now looking forward to seeing what long term impact we can bring about.
23 *Reflections on Reading: A.F. Harrold
When I was a teenager I decided to become a poet. I This was the library. As a teenager I worked my way wanted to do something arty and all the other avenues through its poetry shelves, its tape and CD collections, seemed to have quite high starting requirements: either browsing, nibbling, experimenting, and years before that cash investment (canvases, chisels, trombones, etc.) my dad, going out to his evening job as a cleaner, dropped or many hours of tedious out loud practising (chisels, me off once a week and picked me up on his way home. I trombones, tap-shoes, etc.). I decided that poetry, for ate my way through the children’s section, absorbing my which nothing much was needed besides a pencil and a education from the non-fiction shelves, giving my dreams bit of scrap paper, was the way forward. wings with the fiction.
I wanted to do something arty to impress the girls, which I was an autodidacting before I even knew autodidact as a teenager seemed terribly important and urgent wasn’t really a verb. at the time, but having a wash might’ve worked better. Nevertheless I wrote some poems (very bad ones) and Jorge Luis Borges said: “I think of myself as being then I went to the library where I dutifully fed my pocket essentially a reader. As you are aware, I have ventured money into the photocopier as if it were a jukebox and I into writing; but I think that what I have read is far more were living a different life. important than what I have written. For one reads what one likes – yet one writes not what one would like to write, I photocopied and stapled little booklets of poems but what one is able to write.” I echo with the truth of this. together and handed them out to anyone who cared enough to take one from me. (Every now and then I get a I write because I like making things, whether they’re tiny semi-threatening message on Facebook from someone in poems like fragile birds, or novels like waves shuckling in my past reminding me they still have one of these. I think the distance in the night, but really, to be honest, it’s just they mean well, but I wish on them a cold winter when something I do to fill the time in between books I want to fuel for the fire is in short supply and they’re not feeling read – I mean, you have to fill your time somehow and it’s nostalgic.) better than getting a real job.
Some people, I’m sure have better reasons for reading – “I like making things, whether they’re all I can say is: it’s what I do; it’s what I like to do; it’s what I tiny poems like fragile birds, or know to do; now leave me alone, I’m halfway through this novels like waves in the distance.” chapter…
Eventually my poems became better poems and the stories I wrote became better stories, and now I feel less embarrassed to know that books filled with my words are on strangers’ shelves, but back there, back then, was where it all started – and I just want you to look around at that building.
A.F. Harrold is an English poet who writes and performs for adults and children. He spends his time showing off on stage, “It should be fairly obvious to state that one of the writing poems and books, and stroking best ways to get children interested in reading and to his beard (it helps churn the ideas). He is carry on being interested in reading is to ensure that the author of the Fizzlebert Stump series they are surrounded with books and printed matter (illustrated by Sarah Horne), The Imaginary, that interests them.” The Song from Somewhere Else (illustrated by Levi Pinfold) and the Greta Zargo series (illustrated by Joe Todd Stanton). He lives in Reading with a stand-up comedian and two cats.
www.afharroldkids.com Twitter:@afharrold
24 Section Four *Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often
In this section we consider the books read by struggling readers - defined as books read by pupils who were reading at two or more years below their actual chronological age. Again, numbers in the lowest and the highest years were insufficient, so Years 1-4 and 11-13 are excluded. The books preferred by struggling readers were of interest. Did they show a different pattern from regular readers, and how did these children sustain interest, especially in the later years? Appendix E contains the Tables.
Year 5 This suggests these pupils were reading at a level two and Roderick Hunt had nine books in this list, a dramatic a half years below their chronological age, which is not reduction from 14 last year. However, Francesca Simon, far below what one might expect. It may be that teachers Julia Donaldson and Dr Seuss were the top three, just as and librarians are responding to the call to encourage last year, and all of these authors had another book in the raising the difficulty level of books. However, the average list. Many of these books were also chosen by readers of APC was 0.86, as last year. Seven books were under the average ability at a lower age level (table 19 Appendix E). 85% criterion (compared to eight last year). It seems that reading harder books has had an effect on quality of Average APC was 0.88 (just as last year). Four books understanding. All the David Orme and Sue Graves books did not reach the 85% criterion, as last year. Difficulty of lower readability were above the 85% threshold. averaged 2.0 (UK 3.0), up from last year (1.8). Pupils were reading about two years below their actual age, which is Year 8 what one might expect. Jeff Kinney had eleven books, a further slight increase Year 6 from last year, including the top book and the five after Roald Dahl had five books including the number one book, that. David Walliams had four books (as last year). a huge increase from last year (one book). Francesca Roald Dahl had two books, one less than last year. Many Simon had seven books, as last year, but these were in of these books also feature in average reader lists for lower places than last year. Three books by Roderick Hunt younger pupils, i.e. they are quite different from Year 7 were chosen (a drastic reduction from 11 last year). Julia books (table 22 Appendix E). Donaldson appeared again with two Gruffalo books (table 20 Appendix E). Difficulty has been sustained and even increased slightly at 5.1 (UK 6.1). However, this increase was still at Average APC was 0.85 (slightly lower than last year). something of a cost – APC was 0.84 (as last year), just Thus the average APC only just met the 85% criterion for below the 85% criterion level. Nine books did not reach successful comprehension. Ten books fell below the 85% the 85% criterion (compared to 10 last year). Nonetheless, criterion (three more than last year). Books were being the relationship between book difficulty and APC is not read with worse comprehension. This is perhaps because a straightforward one – there is no obvious correlation ATOS difficulty level averaged 3.2 (U.K. 4.2), a considerable between them in this list. Some books of high difficulty increase from last year (2.7). These pupils were reading have been read with comprehension. Thus these pupils at two years below their chronological age, which is what were reading two years behind their chronological age, as one would expect, but they were not doing very well in one might expect. terms of understanding the books. Year 9 Year 7 Of Mice and Men is top of the list. Jeff Kinney has eleven This Year is of course the first secondary year in England, books (one more than last year), including all the books Wales and Northern Ireland. This may account for the from two through eight. David Walliams has three books. unusual findings. In Year 7, David Orme had four Boffin Roald Dahl has one book (two last year). J. B. Priestley Boy books including the number one in the table (two less also sustains his appearance from last year. Many of than last year). Jeff Kinney also had five books (as last these books appear for average readers at a lower age year). Sue Graves had three books (as last year), but these level (table 23 Appendix E). were of very low readability. David Walliams also had three books (none last year). Roald Dahl had two books (one Difficulty averaged 5.1 (UK 6.1), the same as last year. less than last year). The books chosen were somewhat APC was higher (0.86) than in previous years (0.84). Seven unlike the books chosen by younger readers with the books were below the 85% criterion (one less than last same level of ability, except for the Jeff Kinney, Roald Dahl year). Pupils were reading three years below their actual and David Walliams books (table 21 Appendix E). age, which was one year further behind what might have been expected. The average difficulty was again ATOS 3.5 (UK 4.5), sustaining a very large increase from the year before last.
25 Section Four *Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often
Conclusion
In general pupils were reading at two years behind their chronological age, as one might expect. The exceptions were in Year 7, where pupils were six months further behind, and in Year 9, where pupils were a year further behind. These would be good Year groups to focus on to try to create an improvement. The level of comprehension was not good. After Year 5 a great many of the top 20 books were read on average at below the recommended 85% APC criterion. Nonetheless there was little evidence that Years 7 and 9 were exceptional in this respect. In the later years there were again signs of pupils reading more books familiar to younger pupils with higher reading ability, which we can take as a good sign. Additionally, the relationship between book difficulty and APC is not a straightforward one – while some easier books are read with higher comprehension, others are not. Some quite hard books are read with comprehension by this group of delayed readers. This should lead teachers to investigate patterns of motivation which bring about this phenomenon.
26 How an Accelerated Reader Quiz is Written
Over 31,000 Accelerated Reader quizzes are published in the UK, with an additional 150 added each month. But what exactly goes into each one?
Title Selection Did you know? The order in which titles are prioritised for quizzing Not every book is quizzable! is primarily decided by the number of requests from Books with insufficient text, schools. Once chosen, we contact the publisher to that follow unusual formats request a copy. or consist heavily of poetry are among those that cannot be quizzed.
Did you know? Accelerated Reader quizzes come in 3,5,10 and 20 question Processing varieties. The majority are 5 and 10 questions long, with 3 The book is scanned and run through the ATOS analyser, question quizzes usually for new assigning it a Points and Book Level based on the readers. complexity and length of the text.
Once the book details (such as word count and ISBN) are entered into Accelerated Reader, the book is ready to be taken home, read and quizzed!
Quiz-Writing and Evaluation Editing Once the quiz is written, it is submitted for evaluation. This involves determining the The quiz then goes through a four stage book’s Interest Level, which concerns the edit, each carried out by a different person: maturity of the book’s subject matter. 1st edit: Every question and answer is Books are categorised as either Lower Years checked against the book to ensure that (5-8), Middle Years (9-11), Middle Years+ (12-13) the right answer cannot be guessed or Upper Years (14+). without reading it.
Interest Level is determined separately from 2nd edit: This is similar to the first, difficulty, so a book may for instance be ‘High focusing on fact-checking against the Interest, Low Level’. book.
3rd edit: The quiz is checked without referring at all to the book to enable this editor to spot errors sometimes not previously apparent.
Quality Check: A final proof-read, without Publication! reference to the book.
The quiz is published and ready to be taken. This process can take up to 3 months, but remember that you can make requests through our online system! Did you know? You can check out our Books & Quizzes blog for regular quizzing updates.
27 *Reflections on Reading: Alex Wheatle
The first book I really loved as a child was The Adventures of Robin Hood. I cannot remember the author or if it was one of those Ladybird books that were very popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s but I remember the escapist pleasure it offered me and the sense of adventure. I lived beside an orchard when I was very young so I imagined Robin Hood, Little John, Will Scarlett and the rest of his merry men were only an arrow’s arc away from me.
I went on to read Huckleberry Finn. Again, the narrative Alex Wheatle is an award winning British provoked a deep yearning in my young heart to escape novelist of Jamaican heritage. Wheatle my particular situation. I related very much with Jim, spent much of his childhood in a Surrey the runaway slave, and prayed that he’d make it to his children’s home. By 1980 Wheatle was destination in Illinois. I closed my eyes at night and residing in a social services hostel in visualised the wide waters of the Mississippi and the Brixton, South London. He witnessed and steamboats that rode them. lived through the 1981 Brixton riots, and his early books are based on experiences From around eight years old, football and cricket had from his life living in Brixton as a teenager taken over my life. If I wasn’t playing I wanted to read and his time in social services care. In about my favourite players that included Peter Osgood, 2008, Wheatle was awarded the MBE for George Best, Bobby Charlton, Gary Sobers and my services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday number one idol, Pelé. Sometimes, an older boy in my Honours list. He now visits schools, children’s home discarded a football annual. One in colleges, universities, libraries and prisons particular leaps to my mind – Kenneth Wolstenholme’s facilitating creative writing classes and Book of the 1970 World Cup. I’d readily pick out these performing inspiring speeches. titles from under a bed or from any bin. I can’t relate to you how much pleasure I derived from reading through www.thesusijnagency.com/AlexWheatle Charles Buchan’s Football Annuals and absorbing Twitter: @brixtonbard the profiles, articles and photos of my beloved soccer players. If I couldn’t find a sports book to read, I’d make do with the sports comics and magazines of the day. Shoot! Was my favourite and the comic strip Billy’s Boots offered me endless joy.
“The narrative provoked a deep yearning in my young heart to escape my particular situation.”
As I approached my teens, my hunger for reading faded. Not because I lost interest but with the onrush of adolescence and reality, I understood that I’d never escape from my predicament like Robin Hood or And as you turn the pages, you’re not even aware Huckleberry Finn. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but my that you’re adding to your vocabulary library and your reading and English comprehension stalled as I started understanding of the written word – the key to all secondary school. I only regained my appetite for learning. reading when I was eighteen. I’m very proud to be a recipient of a Quiz Writers’ Choice Now, I visit schools all over the country and in my Award for Crongton Knights. If any young reader can presentations I try to relate to students the importance derive as much pleasure from my stories as I did when I of reading for pleasure. It opens up new worlds, teaches picked up Robin Hood for the first time, then I know I’m you empathy and offers escape just like it did for me. doing my job well.
28 Section Five: *Most Read Non-fiction Books
Almost all the books in these lists are fiction – storybooks. Children like fiction, but they also like non-fiction. We know that boys in particular are interested in non-fiction. So why is it that so many fiction books are chosen? Is it something to do with the reading preferences of school teachers and librarians, who might tend to encourage pupils to read fiction but not non-fiction? This is likely to result in higher performance by girls, who are known to favour fiction. Is this a gendered preference, so that the predominantly female primary school teachers and the half of secondary school teachers who are female prefer fiction and are unconsciously promoting fiction at the expense of non-fiction and disadvantaging boys? A contentious point. Of course, Accelerated Reader is neutral on this matter, as it offers quizzes on a great many non-fiction books. The tables for this section will be found in Appendix F.
Year 3 Average APC was 0.89 (slightly up from last year). Only The top book was by Claire Llewellyn, a new entrant for two of these books were below the 85% criterion, as last this year, who also had another book in the list. There year. Average ATOS was slightly up to 4.0 (UK 5.0), so were four books by Anne Rooney, one less than last year. these pupils were reading books almost equal to their Two books by Chloe Rhodes (as last year) were highly natural ability. There is evidence here of an improvement placed. There were also two by Mick Gowar, as last in accuracy. Nonetheless, there seemed no correlation year. Otherwise every author was different, much as last between difficulty and APC – some very difficult books year. Many were old favourites from last year, except for were read with accuracy, and vice versa. Michael Morpurgo’s A Visit to the Farm. A number of the books were nature books (table 24 Appendix F). Year 6 Roald Dahl holds the first two places and Jeff Kinney is Five books were below the 85% criterion, as last year. The third. All these books are high readability. Roy Apps has average APC was 0.87 (slightly decreased from last year). two sports-related books in the list (down from four last ATOS was 2.7 (UK 3.7), the same as last year, indicating year). Becca Heddle and Sarah Fleming had two books these pupils were reading books six months above their (both up from one last year). Two books had an obvious natural reading ability, which might partially account for male sports theme and the first three books in the list the high number of books read below criterion. were about males, but only one had a female theme. Other topics were very mixed (table 27 Appendix F). Year 4 John Malam’s Finding Things was number one, but he had ATOS has risen dramatically to 5.2 (from 4.6 last year) (UK no other books in the list. Anne Rooney had four books equivalent 6.2). Thus pupils were reading slightly above (the same as last year) and there were two books by Chloe their age level. Six books were below the 85% criterion, Rhodes (as last year). Otherwise all authors are different. worse than the four last year, but arguably a small price Roald Dahl’s Tales of Childhood sustains its appearance. to pay for the gain in difficulty. Average APC was 0.87 (a Nature themes predominate even more so. There is little slight decrease from last year). sense of book titles being likely to be favoured by boys or girls (table 25 Appendix F). Year 7 Year 7 is the first secondary year. Roald Dahl’s Boy is Average APC was 0.88, the same as last year. This year still on top. A major shift in content from the primary three of these books were below the 85% criterion, as last years is apparent with seven books by Roy Apps on male year. Difficulty was 3.2 (UK 4.2), as last year, indicating sporting heroes (one more than last year) – although he that these books were pretty much on a par with the does now have one book on Jessica Ennis. Anne Rooney pupils’ natural ability. now has four books (three last year) and Jonny Zucker has two books (as last year), but these are in fairly low Year 5 positions. A significant new entrant to the chart was The Roald Dahl tops the list with Boy: Tales of Childhood Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World and Jeff Kinney’s The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary is second. by Malala Yousafzai. Apart from its moral characteristics Dahl’s Going Solo is also in the list. These books are of this book is of high readability. Furthermore, ten of these high readability but the first two have been read with high books have a male-oriented theme – strong evidence comprehension. Anne Rooney has two books (three last of a male preference (down from 13 last year). Only two year) and Mick Gowar has two books (as last year). The have evidence of likely female preference. Why should this move towards nature books seems to have stopped, and become so prominent so immediately after transfer to these books are a well-mixed collection (table 26 Appendix secondary school? (see table 28 Appendix F). F).
29 Section Five: *Most Read Non-fiction Books
The average ATOS was 4.2 (just as last year); indicating comprehension indicates that the pupils were indeed pupils were reading almost two years below their natural capable of reading harder books successfully. Thus these ability. Three books are below the 85% criterion (down pupils were reading at slightly more than two years behind from seven last year). These are not encouraging results their chronological age. when these books are so easy for the pupils. APC is 0.88 (somewhat raised from last year). Year 9 Authors featured are Roy Apps (six books – two less than Year 8 last year) and Jonny Zucker (four books – the same as Roald Dahl was again top of the list. Roy Apps had nine last year), including the top book. Thirteen of these books books (up from seven), largely about male sportsmen. have a male-oriented theme, down from sixteen last year. Jonny Zucker had four books (up from three last year). Anne Rooney has disappeared from this list this year. Difficulty increased considerably compared to previous Many of these books (14) seem male-oriented (16 last years, but actually declined relative to age. Having risen, year). it was now the same as for Year 8, which also rose (4.8; last year it was 4.5). This means that these pupils were Four books fell below the 85% criterion, much less reading at three years below their ability. Six books were than last year (eight). APC rose considerably to 0.88 below the 85% criterion, two less than last year. Average (0.85 last year) (table 29 Appendix F). Year 8 shows APC was 0.86, slightly increased from last year (table 30 many similarities to Year 7, although the difficulty Appendix F). rose considerably to 4.8 (from 4.5 last year). The rise in difficulty together with the rise in accuracy of
Conclusion
Year 3 were reading above their chronological age, but with not very good comprehension. Year 4 were reading at their chronological age, but with better comprehension. In Year 5 comprehension became even better and the pupils were still reading at almost their chronological age. In Year 6 male sports themes began to appear, but topics were very mixed. Difficulty had risen dramatically and pupils were reading books above their chronological age. Compared to previous Years these pupils were sustaining the difficult of books for longer.
At Year 7 (secondary level) everything changed. Pupils were now reading two years behind their chronological age and difficulty was not going up. There was strong evidence of a male-oriented sports theme, but few countervailing books for girls. A significant new entrant to the chart was The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai. Apart from its moral characteristics, this book is of high readability.
In Year 8 pupils again were reading two years behind their age, but the rise in difficulty in this Year together with the rise in accuracy of comprehension indicates that the pupils were indeed capable of reading harder books successfully. The male-dominated texts continued to feature. In Year 9 the male theme continued and difficulty was the same as the previous Year, which meant these pupils were reading three years behind their chronological age. The number of books not read to the criterion of 85% was unacceptably high – it seemed that non-fiction books were not read or understood as carefully as the fiction books.
30 *Reflections on Reading: Holly Bourne
Getting teens to read books for pleasure can have huge benefits to their mental health, but are we letting literary snobbery get in the way?
There is a special place in the chokey for anyone who judges a young person’s reading habits. There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ reading - there is only reading. Snobbery about teen literature, and what kinds of books are worthy or unworthy, will only put them off reading. Holly Bourne is the bestselling author of As a teen author, I regularly visit secondary schools to the Spinster Club series for young adults, talk about books and my writing. Even though I’m more and winner of the inaugural What Kids interesting than double-maths, most sessions start Are Reading Quiz Writers’ Choice Award. exactly the same. I stare out at a sea of vaguely-bored Her latest book is It Only Happens in the faces. You can feel that at least eighty per cent of the Movies. audience are thinking.... yawn. Oh, books? They’re not for me. www.hollybourne.tumblr.com Twitter: @holly_bourneYA “By encouraging young people Instagram: holly_bourneYA to read for pleasure, you’re encouraging them to improve “Imagination is the key not only to storytelling but to creativity and their wellbeing.” intellectual development in all walks of life. Being inventive or having an Until I ask them this... idea can help a person overcome What was your favourite book when you were a child? a problem, find a solution to an In a small group, I make them all answer individually. In argument or maybe even write a...” large assemblies, I put up a slide of common favourites - like Harry Potter, or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or even I Want My Potty. The atmosphere in the room changes instantly. The teenagers start laughing, their faces transform, they start turning and chatting to their friends. They remember that they do love stories. They love And, most importantly, why? Why is it so important teens reading them and talking about them. And, as I stand and remember to enjoy stories again? Because reading is one watch this dramatic change, I can’t help but think - what of the most healthy things anyone can do. Research from have we done to them to make them think they don’t? the University of Sussex showed that reading can reduce stress by sixty-eight per cent - that’s more than listening I believe it’s because we’ve forgotten what stories are - to music or going for a walk. We’re currently in a the midst stories. A way of escaping into another place and time, of a teen mental health epidemic, with rates of depression a way of going on a journey without leaving your room. and anxiety in teenagers increasing by 70% in the past 25 It’s magic. Teens need to be reminded of that. How? By years. By encouraging young people to read for pleasure, never judging them for what they’re reading - whether it’s you’re encouraging them to improve their wellbeing. vampires, or comic books, books with short sentences, or funny stories that just make them laugh. They should Reading is a healthy way of processing - or just plain never feel like they should be reading better. If you nurture escaping - what they’re going through. Nurturing a love of their love of stories, I promise you, in time, they will read stories isn’t just good for the world of literature, but for the better. inner worlds of every single teenager who can fall into the simple, healthy, pleasure of devouring a ‘good’ book. Whatever ‘better’ means anyway. The more stories they enjoy reading, the more they’ll want to read. They’ll go on their own journeys of literary discovery.
31 Section Six: *Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading
In this section we compare the fiction vs. non-fiction results for boys and girls in 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2018, to see if there are any gender differences and to see if there are developmental trends of significance over time (tables 31-34 Appendix G).
In 2011, boys clearly had a higher preference for non-fiction than girls - two and a half times as much. However, they did not read or understand it as well as fiction. Girls read and understood non-fiction a little better than boys, and did the same with fiction. Girls’ interest in non-fiction fell away sharply on entry to secondary education. Boys’ interest in non-fiction rose during primary, was sustained in the early years of secondary and then fell away at the end of secondary.
In 2014, boys still had a higher preference for non-fiction than girls, this time just twice as much. However, again they did not read or understand it as well as fiction, to the same extent. Girls read and understood non-fiction better than boys, and this gap was wider than in 2011; this was also true of fiction. Girls’ interest in nonfiction fell away sharply on entry to secondary education. Boys’ interest rose during primary and was sustained in secondary.
In 2017, boys again had the same higher preference for non-fiction than girls; about twice as much. Again, they did not read or understand it as well as fiction, and this gap was widening somewhat. Girls read and understood non-fiction better than boys, and this gap was a little wider than in 2014. Girls’ interest in non-fiction no longer fell away as sharply on entry to secondary education. As in 2014, boys’ interest rose during primary and was sustained in secondary.
In 2018, these trends continued. Boys read slightly more than twice as much non-fiction as girls. However, boys had a lower APC than girls on non-fiction quizzes (0.78 vs. 0.84) – they read non-fiction with worse comprehension than girls. This was also less than boys’ APC on fiction (0.88), which was comparable to girls’ APC on fiction (0.87). However, girls’ interest in non-fiction again fell away on entry to secondary education. As in 2017, boys’ interest rose during primary and was sustained in secondary, tailing off in Years 10-13.
Conclusion
Boys’ interest in non-fiction rises during primary and this is sustained into secondary, but it is still only 9% of all books read. Girls’ interest is less than half as much, although this gap has narrowed compared to previous years. Girls’ interest in non-fiction falls away in secondary school. In all four sets of data boys did not understand non-fiction as well as fiction, and girls understood non-fiction better than boys.
32 School Spotlight : Scoil Chríost Rí The Telford Park School and * Telford Langley School, Shropshire, UK
In September 2015, The Telford Park and Telford Langley Schools committed to rejuvenating their reading cultures, and establishing literacy as a whole-school priority. Today, literacy outcomes and attitudes have been drastically transformed…
“We schedule 45 minutes of reading per day, spread across two Tutor periods, 20 minutes at the beginning of one lesson every day on a rolling timetable, 15 minutes at the beginning of every English lesson and one hour long Accelerated Reader lesson every week.”
- Sarah Foley, Reading Development Coordinator
“Typically at the start of an Accelerated Reader lesson I’ll display some reading data on the board – showing who’s achieving 85% correct in quizzes and who has an engaged reading time of over 25 minutes per day. We can then identify how the group is doing and engage the children individually.”
- Steve Dolphin, PE and Accelerated Reader Teacher
“We really made sure that staff across the school were on board with Accelerated Reader and our new approach to reading. We’ve emphasised reading as a whole school focus and not just an issue for the English department. Teachers have seen the benefits in their lessons, which have become much more effective across the curriculum.” - Holly Rigby, Head Teacher, Telford Park School
“When we first introduced Accelerated Reader in 2015, the main focus for us was the importance of literacy. Research shows that young people who read well have a whole range of advantages: they know more, do better in exams, and are better prepared to handle social situations. They’re generally better off in life.
We wanted to establish reading as a whole-school priority. Since doing so, we’ve seen reading ages rapidly progress beyond chronological development, unprecedented enthusiasm for reading and improved communications with parents.”
- Steve Carter, Executive Head, The Telford Park and Telford Langley School
33 Section Seven: *Voting for Favourite Books
Children complete quizzes on books to assess their understanding, but can also vote for books in terms of whether they enjoyed the book or not. Of course, degree of understanding is not the same as personal preference, and the two measures should not be confused. The voting system enables pupils to select one of four ratings of a book: One of the best books I have ever read; A very good book; An OK book and Not a good book.
These four ratings are used to generate an Average Book Rating, which is then weighted taking into account issues such as a minimum number of votes, the overall number of votes cast for a particular book, and the context of ratings in that particular Year. The tables giving the Weighted Rating for each book are in Appendix H.
Year 1 Numbers of pupils responding in this Year are low, so the findings are scattered and results may not be reliable. These books are a wonderful celebration of novelty and child initiative; none of them appeared last year. Despite dominating in past years, Roderick Hunt does not feature in the list. The authors are completely diverse – only Jenny Giles appears three times. This implies that teachers and librarians have a major task in terms of their time and the funds available in updating book resources. It indicates that librarians need very up-to-date information about children’s preferences if they are to be able to respond to child motivations (table 35 Appendix H).
In terms of difficulty, the average ATOS is 1.9 (UK equivalent 2.9), a decline on last year’s 2.4 but above the 1.7 of the year before, indicating the pupils were reading at a level two years above their chronological age and natural reading ability. Were they reading these books accurately? Average APC was 0.88 (decreased from last year but still high). Two books fell below the 85% criterion – one was a hard book and one was relatively easy. So the answer is “yes”.
Year 2 Year 2 numbers responding were again quite low, so results again should not be taken as reliable. Only J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the top of the list had been in the list before. David Walliams new book The Midnight Gang appears and is joined by two other Walliams books. Liz Pichon has two books, as does Daisy Meadows. Many of the rest have suddenly appeared in this list, emerging from relative obscurity. The authors are again very diverse. Only Liz Pichon and J K Rowling appear in the most read books list (table 36 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating is 2.9 (compared to 2.5 last year) (UK Years 3.9), indicating that these books were on average two years harder than the children’s actual ability. Average APC was 0.91 (slightly increased from the 0.90 last year). Two books fell below the 85% criterion (compared to three last year). However, Rowling’s book had an ATOS of 6.7 and was read with an APC of .90 – and other hard books were read with a high APC.
Year 3 The data is considerably more reliable in this Year group. J K Rowling has six books in the list, including the top book, sustaining her rise from last year (seven). David Walliams has two new books in the list. Jacqueline Wilson has three books. Rachel Renée Russell and Linda Chapman have two books each. Enid Blyton has reappeared this year (table 37 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating is 5.1, a substantial decrease from last year (5.5) (UK Years 6.1). These books were three years harder than the natural age and ability of the pupils. Average APC was 0.90, slightly less than last year (0.91). One book fell below the 85% criterion (one less than last year).
Year 4 J. K. Rowling again has a big presence with the top seven books. Rick Riordan has two books. All the authors except J K Rowling were new to the list. There are four new books. Otherwise the authors are diverse (table 38 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating is 5.7 (UK equivalent 6.7), a slight decline from last year. These pupils were reading nearly three years above their natural age and ability. APC was 0.92 (slightly higher than last year). No book fell below the 85% criterion, as compared to one last year.
34 Section Seven: *Voting for Favourite Books Year 5 J K Rowling has three books in the top three positions. Rick Riordan has three and Zoe Sugg has two. The list features three new books, including the non-fiction text Gareth Bale: The Boy Who Became a Galáctico from Tom Oldfield (table 39 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating is 5.6 (UK Years 6.6), substantially up on last year (5.3). These books were a year and a half harder than the children’s chronological age. One book fell below the 85% criterion (none last year). Average APC was 0.92 (down from last year), perhaps because of the rise in difficulty.
Year 6 J K Rowling makes one appearance at the top of the list. The next six places are occupied by Rick Riordan, who has one further book in the list (a total of three last year), a considerable improvement. The list includes a new book by Rick Riordan and Ransom Riggs’ Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children. It also includes three books by Derek Landy (table 40 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating is 5.2 (UK Years 6.2), a decrease from last year (5.4). These pupils were reading only a little above their actual age. No book just fell below the 85% criterion (one last year). Average APC was 0.94, slightly higher than last year.
Year 7 This Year group features six new books, with Taran Matharu’s The Inquisition and two of Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine books featuring in high places. Top of the list was Christopher Paolini, who had three other books in the list, as last year. Derek Landy had two (table 41 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating was 5.8, the same as last year (UK Years 6.8). In the first year of secondary school, these pupils were reading books which were below their chronological age and natural ability. The decline in difficulty has begun. Average APC was 0.93 (slightly more than last year) and no book fell below the 85% criterion (as in the last year).
Year 8 Three new books by Sarah J. Maas appear – one takes the top spot. Will Hill has four books in the list and Erin Hunter has two (down from five last year). Two books by Taran Matharu also figure here, one of them new. Zoe Sugg’s new book also appears low down. Rick Riordan has disappeared (table 42 Appendix H).
The average ATOS rating was 6.2 (UK Years 7.2), up massively from 5.7 last year. These books were six months less difficult than chronological age. No book fell below the 85% criterion (one last year). Average APC was 0.94 (up slightly from last year). Despite the big increase in difficulty books were still being read with the same level of comprehension.
Years 9-11 Sarah J Maas took the top two places with her new books and had two other books in the list. Christopher Paolini had two highly placed books. Cassandra Clare had six books in lower positions, a decline from last year when she had ten. Rick Riordan had three (two last year) (table 43 Appendix H).
None of these books was below the 85% criterion (as last year) and the average APC was 0.94 (as last year). The average ATOS rating was 5.8 (UK Years 6.8), a substantial increase on last year (5.4), but still below the difficulty recorded by Year 8 pupils (6.2). These books were at least three years easier than chronological age.
We should bear in mind that the reading age needed to read The Times is 12.7 years, so if Year 10 pupils were reading The Times, they would still be reading 3.3 years below their proper reading level. On the other hand, the purpose of Accelerated Reader is not to offer relaxed reading as from a newspaper, but to accelerate pupils’ growth in reading.
35 Section Seven: *Voting for Favourite Books
Most Popular Titles in Primary and Secondary
We can now look at the most popular titles overall in terms of their being voted for as favourite books and appearing in the top 20 favourite books within the age ranges of Primary and Secondary schools (Appendix H, tables 44 and 45).
In primary schools, David Walliams’ new book The Midnight Gang has displaced J K Rowling from the top of the primary table, although J K Rowling’s books still appear in seven of the first nine places. Jeff Kinney’s new book Double Down appears at number five, but this is his only entry. Jacqueline Wilson’s long-standing favourite Hetty Feather completes the list. Suzanne Collins and Zoe Sugg have dropped out.
The secondary list sees the resurgence of J K Rowling, who has four books in the top five. Second is Zoe Sugg with her new book Girl Online: Going Solo. Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything, Alex Bell’s Frozen Charlotte and Ransom Riggs’ Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children are new entrants. Rick Riordan completes the list with two books (two less than last year). Four of these books also appeared in the most popular books for Primary school pupils, underlying how secondary pupils under-challenge themselves.
Conclusion
In the primary years, children are reading very difficult books with a high degree of success – it is wonderful what reading motivating books does for children. Overall J K Rowling has most mentions (20), with Rick Riordan coming second (15). Sarah J Maas surges in with seven. Then come David Walliams, Cassandra Clare, and Christopher Paolini, all on six. Derek Landy (5) is followed by Will Hill (4). New comers Ransom Riggs and Tarau Matharu are on three, along with Jenny Giles, Jacqueline Wilson and Zoe Sugg. Linda Chapman, Rachel Renée Russell, Erin Hunter and Daisy Meadows are all on two. Strikingly, Jeff Kinney hardly appears. Why are children reading books in the quiz lists they do not prefer? Possibly because they only know their favourites after the book has been read. But this does not explain pupils returning to read endless Jeff Kinney books, presumably on the basis that they “like the author”.
In Years 1-6 children are reading favourite books generally far above their chronological ability, but still maintaining a high rate of success in terms of high APC, albeit with some failure in Year 1 and Year 2 to meet required standards of accuracy.
However, there is a marked difference in Year 7 (the year of secondary transfer). At this point favoured books are no longer a year above chronological age, but a year below it, and in ensuing years the difficulty of books plateaus or declines. This is the same picture as last year. It seems that transfer to secondary school has a striking effect even on highly motivated readers. There is some good news in the mix, however, with difficulty improving while comprehension stays high in some Years.
36 *Reflections on Reading: Julie Mayhew
When acclaimed science fiction writer Ursula K Le Guin died earlier this year, a quote of hers was circulated on social media.
Speaking to The Paris Review, she said: “Fiction is something that only human beings do, and only in certain circumstances.
“We don’t know exactly for what purposes. But one of the things it does is lead you to recognise what you did not know before.” Julie Mayhew is the author of Red Ink (shortlisted for the 2014 Branford This sums up perfectly why I write. Questions propel me Boase Award), The Big Lie (winner of into new projects. With my novel The Big Lie, I wanted the 2016 Sidewise Award for Alternate to ask, what would life be like for young British girls now History) and the critically acclaimed if the Nazis had won World War II? With Mother Tongue, Mother Tongue. She also writes for how do people find joy after terrible tragedy? the stage and for film, and has been twice nominated for Best Original As Le Guin puts it, I wanted to work out what I did not Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards know before. for her radio plays - including a 2016 recognition for The Electrical Venus, But what is more fascinating is that my initial question, the drama“Imagination on which is this the book key notis based. only to the conscious motivation for me to put pen to paper, Julie grewstorytelling up in Peterborough but to creativity and and usually masks a deeper, more personal anxiety. originallyintellectual trained development as a journalist, in then all walks as anof actress,life. Being before inventive turning or to havingwriting an When I come to the second-from-last chapter, it will hit becauseidea she can couldn’t help a findperson enough overcome me – oh! That’s what I’m trying to pick apart! Sometimes brillianta rolesproblem, for girls. find a solution to an this is a wonderful discovery. Sometimes it leads to much- argument or maybe even write a...” needed soul-searching. www.juliemayhew.co.uk Twitter: @juliemayhew Hearing a fascinating description of an 18th century Instagram: JulieMayhew scientific demonstration launched me into writing, The Electrical Venus. As a means to showing-off the powers of static electricity, natural philosophers of the time would position a beautiful woman on an insulated block, charge her with electricity and then invite men to kiss her so they could feel the zap.
I wanted to know: who was this woman on the block? And also, do we describe modern love in terms of electricity – “We had a spark!” “There was a charge between us!” – because of this early experiment?
With the book almost finished, I began to see that I was actually interrogating my own relationship with science. As a child, I had been obsessed with the subject but had not pursued it and this, I realised, was a deep regret. Had “My initial question, the I believed then that science wasn’t a suitable subject for a conscious motivation for me to girl? put pen to paper, usually masks a The reasons we write are closely aligned with why we read. We choose books which speak to our interests, but deeper, more personal anxiety.” it is a great book that can reach out to us with its cover and its blurb, and then lead us to answer unexpected Sometimes this is a wonderful experience, sometimes questions. challenging, but never is it not worthwhile.
37 Section Eight: *Regional Variation in Reading Habits In previous years we have investigated regional variations between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales starting at Year 3. This year we have two innovations to report.
The first is that because the numbers of children quizzing have increased across the board, we can now report on regional variations from Year 1. However, we only do this when the numbers for that region are reasonably large, which is why Year 1 only features England. Year 2 onwards features England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Wales does not appear until Year 4.
Secondly, in order to compare the UK regions with a neighbouring country, we have included the results from the Republic of Ireland in these tables. However, we only do this from Year 2. In the future we may include the results from other countries where Accelerated Reader is used, such as Australia.
Year 1 children are reading moderately difficult books but not In Year 1 (in England only) Roderick Hunt is unsurprisingly with good comprehension (table 48, Appendix I). the main author. Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen and Jill Murphy have one book each, but all other positions are Year 4 filled by Hunt. Difficulty levels are high, suggesting these In England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Roald children are reading at more than a year and a half above Dahl dominates – especially in Wales. However, this is their chronological age. This is being done with good not true of Ireland, where Jeff Kinney and David Walliams comprehension, as APC is 0.90. Only one book is below are much more prominent. In Scotland David Walliams is the 85% criterion (table 46, Appendix I). again particularly popular (table 49 Appendix I).
Year 2 In England and Scotland difficulty is again similar (4.8), The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson) and The Magic Finger and now difficulty in Ireland is now only a little higher (Roald Dahl) do very well in all four regions (England, (5.0), while difficulty in Northern Ireland (3.4) and Wales Northern Ireland, Scotland, Republic of Ireland). The (3.5) remains low. Children in Ireland are reading two Gruffalo’s Child does well in the UK but not in Ireland. The years above their chronological age, with England and same is true of Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Scotland not far behind. Children in Northern Ireland and Hunt. Ireland does not seem particularly keen on Roderick Wales are still reading at six months above their age. APC Hunt. Ireland has more Roald Dahl books, which has is similar across all five regions (0.89-0.92). doubtless pushed up their average difficulty. Year 5 The highest difficulty is in the Republic of Ireland (2.8), Ireland and to a lesser degree England and Scotland followed by England (2.5), Scotland (2.3) and Northern persist with Kinney and Walliams, while Northern Ireland Ireland (1.7). This range of difficulty is striking, with over and Wales still have more interest in Dahl. This is much as a year’s difference between top and bottom. Furthermore it was last year, except for the inclusion of the Republic of we know that Northern Ireland generally have good Ireland (table 50 Appendix I). reading test results, so we do not expect this finding to persist in later Years. APC in all four regions is similar The ATOS difficulty for all regions except Wales is now (0.90-0.91) (table 47, Appendix I). similar (4.8-5.1). Wales was much lower at 4.2. In Wales pupils are reading barely above their chronological age, Year 3 whereas in the other regions they are reading a year The Magic Finger and the Gruffalo are top in England, above their chronological age. APC was broadly similar Northern Ireland and Scotland, but The Gruffalo does not (0.89-.93), although again Wales was lowest and Ireland appear at all in the Ireland list. Instead they have Roald highest. Dahl in the top three places. Jeff Kinney shows up very frequently lower down. Roald Dahl and Francesca Simon Year 6 feature lower down in England, Northern Ireland and David Walliams and Jeff Kinney were a favourite choice Scotland, but there is little sign of Jeff Kinney (whose in all regions, much as last year. However, Wales was still readability is high for this age of child). more attached to Roald Dahl books (table 51 Appendix I).
APC is at 0.89-0.90 for England and Northern Ireland, Difficulty in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and but down at 0.85 for Scotland and up at 0.93 for Ireland. Ireland was very similar (ATOS 5.0-5.3). In Wales however, However, the difficulty of books is on a par for England it was lower (4.8). APC was similar in the first four regions and Scotland (3.1-3.2), but much lower for Northern (0.92-0.93) but lower in Wales (0.85). Children in England, Ireland and much higher for Ireland. It is beginning to look Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland were reading at or as if children are introduced to hard books much earlier slightly above their chronological age, but in Wales they in Ireland, and much later in Northern Ireland. In Scotland were reading a little below it.
38 Section Eight: *Regional Variation in Reading Habits Year 7 This is the first year of secondary school, except in Scotland, so we could expect interesting differences. However, just as last year again Jeff Kinney and David Walliams are the most popular authors in all regions, with Roald Dahl occupying some of the lower places. This is also true of the Republic of Ireland. Zoe Sugg has disappeared in all regions (table 52 Appendix I). Northern Ireland loves the book Under the Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna, which is in first place there but does not appear in any other region.
Difficulty is much the same across all five regions (0.51-0.53). This is about a year behind chronological age. Fortunately, Wales has caught up on difficulty. APC ranged from 0.88 (England) to 0.93 (Northern Ireland). The fact that Scottish pupils were still in primary school does not seem to have protected them from this decline.
Year 8 Jeff Kinney and David Walliams remain the most popular authors across all regions (including the Republic of Ireland). Roald Dahl is still a significant presence (table 53 Appendix I).
ATOS difficulty is again much the same across all five regions (5.1-5.2). Thus children were reading books two years behind their chronological ages across all regions. APC settled a bit lower, at 0.87 to 0.90, with Ireland again doing the best.
Years 9-11 Jeff Kinney, David Walliams and Roald Dahl are still popular in all regions, but many authors feature in this chart – including John Boyne, Suzanne Collins, J K Rowling, Willy Russell and Zoe Sugg (table 54 Appendix I). Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is top in England and in Ireland. Scotland loves Skellig by David Almond, which is number one there but does not feature in any other region.
ATOS difficulty for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales was similar (5.1-5.2), and similar to the previous year, but it was markedly lower for Ireland (4.6) (although this may have been because of relatively small numbers). Children were reading at least three years behind their chronological age, and worse in Ireland. APC was similar at 0.89-0.90 for four regions, but lower for Northern Ireland (0.85).
Conclusion
Three main features stand out from the foregoing.
Firstly, the striking slump in difficulty at transfer to secondary school is very marked in all regions, including the Republic of Ireland. Book difficulty plateaus after secondary transfer. The fact that pupils in Scotland are still in primary school does not protect them from this slump. In Year 6 pupils are reading at their chronological age. In Year 7 pupils are suddenly a year behind their chronological age, in Year 8 two years behind, and in Years 9-11 at least three years behind.
Secondly, there are striking differences in reading teaching at primary level between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic there is much emphasis on reading hard books in lower primary, which the children seem to manage with high levels of comprehension. In Northern Ireland, levels of difficulty are much lower. However, by the time secondary education comes around (or even upper primary), these differences seem to have been levelled out and children are reading material at pretty much the same level of difficulty.
Thirdly, Wales does badly compared to the other four regions. Its level of difficulty stays lower for longer, and its APC is often uncomfortably low as well, particularly at primary school level. Primary teachers in Wales are in need of in-service training to encourage them to encourage their children to be more proactive.
39 *Reflections on Reading: Peter Usborne
There are a few things I remember vividly about reading as a child.
In my nursery school, we all learned only the sounds, rather than the names, of letters. That was unusual, but I don’t think any of us any of us had any difficulty learning to read. Others struggled with letter names and sounds and had a much harder time. We were of course doing ‘phonics’, something I’ve believed in passionately ever since. In 1973, Peter Usborne founded Usborne Publishing, pioneering a new generation of non- Then there was the night I read the whole of Enid Blyton’s fiction books. Having already co-founded the Island of Adventure with a torch underneath the sheets. hugely popular satirical magazine Private Eye, Utterly wonderful. And of course, like all boys brought up in Peter’s next aim was to make educational the war, I adored every story about Biggles, Spitfire pilot. children’s books as engaging and visually appealing as television. But I was never a particularly big reader, and had no plan to have anything to do with books. Pilot? Engine driver? Usborne is now the largest and most Inventor? Painter? Great. Children’s book publisher? You successful independent children’s book must be joking. publisher in the UK, and in 2011, Peter was awarded an MBE. That unexpected career choice came about like this. Peter is still very much involved in the business My first publishing effort was starting a magazine, and – when he’s not travelling the world – is in Mesopotamia, at Oxford. My second one was starting a the office every day. much funnier one, Private Eye, after Oxford. After three years as Satirical Managing Director of that, I diverged for a few years into management consultancy, which I loathed. Eventually I landed up back in publishing, as Assistant to the Chairman of a big group known as BPC Publishing.
After a couple of years, as I vividly remember, my wife rang me at about 3pm on a Friday afternoon and told me ‘You’re going to be a father’. Stunned, I immediately walked into my boss’s office and said ‘Please can I stop doing this and Now I’m 80, and have been lucky enough to have sampled start working on something to do with children?’ ‘OK,’ he most of life’s supposedly greatest pleasures and treats. said, without hesitation. ‘Go downstairs to the third floor As I keep telling everybody, nothing, absolutely nothing where you’ll find a company we own called MacDonald beats the excitement I get from a new book. Books are new Educational, and get yourself a job.’ people, new people’s minds. Nothing covers a wall like floor- to-ceiling bookshelves. My table full of books not yet read is “Being a children’s book publisher my ultimate treat. is something I now consider to be Being a children’s book publisher is something I now consider to be life’s ultimate privilege. When I hear about life’s ultimate privilege.” other peoples’ often painful and tedious jobs, and compare them to mine, I feel downright guilty. I am allowed to work I knew absolutely nothing about children’s books, which with writers, artists, salespeople and production experts turned out to be an advantage. I obviously had a knack for to make things that are attractive as chocolates, funny, them, and I managed to invent a new book series of super- colourful, helpful and intriguing. And I never have to go simple mildly humorous information books aimed at early home in the evening wondering ‘what was the point of all readers. Astonishingly, they worked extremely well, so I that?’ produced more kids’ information series and ended up quite quickly as publishing director. Making books has given me a perfect, golden life that I’ve enjoyed non-stop. Building up Usborne Publishing has One day I met my boss in the gents, and, as we were meant working with people I like, travelling wherever and washing our hands, he asked what I wanted to do next. I whenever I like, attempting to speak lots of languages and said, ‘Start my own company, I’m afraid’. He said, ‘I’ll lend constantly pursuing new ideas. I think life is exciting and you the money’. Which he did. Over £1m in today’s money. wonderful, and if my books manage to get that across, they So that was the start of Usborne Publishing. will have done their job.
40 *Full Conclusion and Recommendations There is good news and bad news, so here the two are divided. Of course, some good news is irreversibly intertwined with bad news, so this device does not always work very well.
The Good News:
1. In its 10 years of reported use in the UK, Accelerated Reader has grown to more than twice the number of schools.
2. More startlingly, from 29,751 students reading 273,016 books ten years ago, use has grown to 963,678 students (a 32-fold increase) and 18,044,078 books (a 66-fold increase). Thus the predominant trend is for schools owning Accelerated Reader to use it with more pupils in the school.
3. The number of quizzes available in Accelerated Reader has risen from 12,500 ten years ago to 31,000 in 2018 (a 250% increase).
4. In 2018 almost a million children participated and boys were slightly more likely to feature than girls.
5. Total quizzes taken (= books read) rose by more than 20% compared to the previous year, while the number of students participating rose by only 14%. So while more students were participating, they were also quizzing on more books per pupil.
6. By far the largest number of quizzes per year was taken by Year 7 pupils (3,804,663). Year 8 was also high on this factor (2,196,072). So the first two years of secondary use Accelerated Reader more than elsewhere.
7. Pupils steadily read more books each year in the first three years, reaching a peak in Year 3 at 36 books. After this the number of books read per year steadily declined. As older pupils read longer and harder books, this would be expected to a large extent.
8. This year pupils read 222,325,703,048 words – a dizzying amount!
9. Pupils in primary schools showed a higher APC than pupils in secondary schools – they were reading books with greater comprehension. The highest APC was in the last two years of primary school.
10. Throughout primary school pupils were reading at a level of difficulty above their chronological age.
11. At secondary level, it is a different story. Level of difficulty plateaus while chronological age marches on, meaning the gap between reading ability and age gets bigger every year.
12. Jeff Kinney remains the most popular author (increased to 60 mentions). David Walliams is at number two (31). J. K. Rowling shows a re-emergence with three mentions with her high readability books. Zoe Sugg has declined.
13. In Primary schools, Roald Dahl’s The Twits is most popular book (as last year). David Walliams is second with his new book The Midnight Gang (and is also at number seven with Gangsta Granny). Roald Dahl surges back with four books, three more than last year. Jeff Kinney has four books towards the bottom of this list, a considerable decline on seven last year.
14. In Secondary schools, David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny is in top place (this book also appears in the Primary list). Walliams has two other books in the top 10. The other places are all occupied by Kinney.
15. In the lists of books read by high achieving children, Jeff Kinney is top with 48 mentions (an increase). J. K. Rowling is second with 44 mentions (a substantial increase). David Walliams is third with many fewer mentions than last year. Fourth is Roald Dahl.
16. For high achieving children, difficulty of books was considerably increased in Years 3, 5 and 8, and somewhat increased in Years 4, 7 and 9. Only in Year 6 had it plateaued.
17. In general, struggling readers were reading at two years behind their chronological age, as one might expect.
18. In non-fiction books, a significant new entrant to the chart was The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai. Apart from its moral characteristics this book is of high readability.
41 19. In primary school non-fiction difficulty has risen dramatically and pupils were reading books above their chronological age.
20. In Year 8 non-fiction, the rise in difficulty together with the rise in accuracy of comprehension indicates that the pupils were indeed capable of reading harder books successfully.
21. Boys’ interest in non-fiction rises during primary and this is sustained into secondary, but it is still only 9% of all books read. Girls’ interest is less than half as much, and falls away in secondary school.
22. In the primary years, children are reading very difficult favourite books with a high degree of success – it is wonderful what reading motivating books does for children. In Years 1-6 children are reading favourite books at far above their chronological ability, but still maintaining a high rate of success in terms of high APC.
23. Overall J K Rowling has most mentions (20), with Rick Riordan coming second (15). Sarah J Maas surges in with seven. Strikingly, Jeff Kinney hardly appears. Why are children reading books in the quiz lists they do not prefer? Possibly because they only know their favourites after the book has been read. But this does not explain pupils returning to read endless Jeff Kinney books, presumably on the basis that they “like the author.”
24. Regarding most popular favourite books in primary schools, David Walliams new book The Midnight Gang is top, but J K Rowling’s books still appear in seven of the first nine places. Jeff Kinney’s new book Double Down appears at number five, but this is his only entry.
25. The secondary most favourite list sees the resurgence of J K Rowling, who has four books in the top five. However, at the top is Zoe Sugg with her new book Girl Online: Going Solo. Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything, Alex Bell’s Frozen Charlotte and Ransom Riggs’ Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children are new entrants.
26. There are striking differences in reading teaching at primary level between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic hard books are read in lower primary, which is managed with high levels of comprehension. In Northern Ireland, levels of difficulty at this stage are much lower. However, by the time secondary education comes around, these differences have been levelled out and children are reading material at pretty much the same level of difficulty.
27. England and Scotland seem to be operating at about the same level.
The Less Good News:
1. Average book difficulty rises as pupils get older, but not in proportion to the rate at which the pupils should be improving in reading. Difficulty level rises sharply each year in primary school, but it does not rise very much in the first years of secondary school (years 7-8). It then declines in Years 11 and 12, when children suddenly start reading somewhat more books – but it appears that these are at an easy level. Older pupils in Years 11, 12 and 13 are still reading easier books than upper primary pupils.
2. At secondary level boys were reading easier books than last year. Despite this, they were not scoring any higher on these easier books. In Year 7 pupils were reading one year behind their chronological age and in Years 9-11 at least three years.
3. Additionally in each Year an increasing number of even top 20 books were read at below the minimum Average Percent Correct (APC) recommended, indicating poorer comprehension.
4. In the first year of secondary school APC fell sharply.
5. While high achieving younger children read well above their chronological age, high achieving older children read well below it.
6. For struggling readers the level of comprehension was not good, especially in secondary - a great many of the top 20 books were read at below the recommended 85% criterion.
7. In Year 7 ten non-fiction books had a male-oriented theme – strong evidence of a male preference. Only two had evidence of likely female preference. Why should this become so prominent so immediately after transfer to secondary school?
42 8. At Year 7 (secondary level) everything changes in non-fiction. Pupils now read two years behind their chronological age and difficulty is plateauing.
9. Boys do not understand non-fiction as well as fiction.
10. Girls understood non-fiction better than boys.
11. In Year 7 favoured books are no longer a year above chronological age, but a year below it, and in ensuing years the difficulty of books plateaus or declines. It seems that the transfer to secondary school has a striking effect even on highly motivated readers.
12. Four of the most favourite books in secondary also appeared in the most popular books for primary school pupils, underlying how secondary pupils under-challenge themselves.
13. Concerning regional differences, the striking slump in difficulty at transfer to secondary school is very marked in all regions, including the Republic of Ireland. The fact that pupils in Scotland are still in primary school does not protect them from this slump.
14. Wales does badly compared to the other four regions, especially in primary schools. Its level of difficulty stays lower for longer, and its APC is often uncomfortably low as well.
43 Recommendations
Well, 27 items of good news compared to 14 items of bad news should not make us too unhappy. Recommendations for the future seem clear. Pupils should be encouraged to: pass all quizzes; sustain a higher level of challenge in their reading on transfer to secondary school; and sustain Average Percent Correct at or above the 85% level on every book. Teachers should be aware of the very different pupil preferences for reading over time and the marked differences in preferences in secondary fiction and non-fiction between boys and girls (although not necessarily encouraging them!). Even high-achieving readers need encouragement to sustain high challenge in their reading, especially in secondary. Struggling readers are seriously under-challenged in secondary, but their level of accuracy is low as well. Boys might profess more interest in non-fiction but need encouragement to read it carefully. Books popular with children should guide school purchasing decisions in the future, with a greater emphasis on higher readability books in secondary.
The take-home messages of this report are thus:
1. There is a marked downturn in difficulty of books at secondary transfer. Although there are some signs that schools are addressing these issues, more needs to be done. Secondary teachers and librarians need to get better at encouraging children appropriately.
2. This downturn in difficulty includes even favourite books which are read at much higher levels of difficulty with successful understanding in primary. Pupils need to be encouraged to aim higher with the difficulty of books.
3. In addition to exhortations from teachers, the peer group are a powerful resource. The lists of favourite books need to be made available to children, who should be encouraged to make their own recommendations for favourite books to their classmates, giving reasons for their choices and indicating the readability level of the book.
4. High-ability readers and struggling readers are also seriously under-challenged in the secondary school – here again encouragement to aim higher with difficulty is needed.
5. For Struggling Readers Years 7 and 9 would be good years to focus on to try to create an improvement.
6. Non-fiction readers are also seriously under-challenged, especially in secondary school where boys choose male-dominated books. Encouragement to aim higher with difficulty and for boys to choose a wider range of books is needed.
7. If the Republic of Ireland could sustain the high level of difficulty read in the early years of primary through upper primary and into secondary, their profile would look much stronger. If Northern Ireland could begin in lower primary with as hard books as the Republic, their profile would look much stronger.
8. Primary teachers in Wales are in need of more information or in-service training to encourage them to encourage their children to be more proactive in terms of difficulty and quality of comprehension.
9. The relationship between book difficulty and APC is not a straightforward one – while some easier books are read with higher comprehension, others are not. Some quite hard books are read with comprehension. Teachers should be aware of this and investigate the patterns of motivation which bring about this phenomenon.
44 At its heart, Accelerated Reader is simple.
Read a book Take a quiz Get instant feedback After identifying a child’s Accelerated Reader offers The Reading Dashboard reading age and range multiple-choice Reading Practice, combines data from both using the Renaissance Star Vocabulary Practice and Star Reading and Accelerated Reading test, the first step is Literacy Skills quizzes. Over 150 Reader to provide a detailed to encourage them to read a new quizzes are added to the picture of how well individual suitably-challenging book. programme every month. and groups of children are performing.
Education Endowment Foundation Independent studies by the National Literacy Trust Reading for (NLT) and Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) attainment show the positive effect that Accelerated Reader has on both attitudes towards books and reading, and reading ability – even among the most struggling and reluctant readers. Reading for enjoyment
Learn more at www.renlearn.co.uk/reading
©Copyright 2018 Renaissance Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. All logos, designs, and brand names for Renaissance’s products and services, including but not limited to ATOS, Accelerated Reader, Star Reading and Renaissance are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries, registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States and other countries. All other product company names should be considered the property of their respective companies and organisations. R60817
45 Appendix A: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Overall Summary Table 1: Total and Average Quizzes taken and passed
Average Total Average Average Average Average Percent Total Quizzes Total Words Year Pupils Quizzes Quizzes Quizzes Book Total Words Correct on Passed Read Taken Taken Passed Level Read Quizzes Taken
1 10,958 273,441 25 240,467 21.9 2 212,001,765 19,348 0.78
2 33,290 1,086,350 32.6 939,281 28.2 2.5 1,303,034,818 39,143 0.78
3 71,912 2,592,418 36 2,172,470 30.2 3 6,917,246,661 96,190 0.77
4 85,430 2,761,961 32.3 2,336,452 27.3 3.4 15,245,408,811 178,454 0.78
5 95,920 2,640,999 27.5 2,249,716 23.5 3.8 26,205,856,187 273,205 0.79
6 87,811 1,842,212 21 1,580,993 18 4.2 28,615,598,070 325,880 0.79
7 265,234 3,804,663 14.3 2,898,465 10.9 4.2 73,321,319,352 276,,444 0.73
8 208,208 2,196,072 10.5 1,679,594 8.1 4.4 50,022,949,059 240,257 0.73
9 87,652 733,634 8.4 559,893 6.4 4.4 18,173,642,399 207,378 0.73
10 12,861 82,903 6.4 63,459 4.9 4.3 1,837,572,303 142,901 0.73
11 3,625 21,398 5.9 16,613 4.6 3.9 368,505,610 101,656 0.73
12 351 3,985 11.4 3,041 8.7 3.2 26,366,784 751,19 0.72
13 426 4,042 9.5 3,364 7.9 3.7 76,201,229 179,297 0.72
Total 963,678 18,044,078 14,743,808 222,325,703,048 230,712
Schools: 4,364
46 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 2: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 1
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
Village in the Snow Village in the Snow Village in the Snow 1 3 3 3 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Roderick Hunt, 1.5
Castle Adventure The Secret Room Castle Adventure 2 1 2 1 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Roderick Hunt, 1.1 Roderick Hunt, 1.5
The Dragon Tree The Dragon Tree The Magic Key 3 4 4 9 Roderick Hunt, 1.2 Roderick Hunt, 1.2 Roderick Hunt, 1.3
The Gruffalo Castle Adventure We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 4 9 1 6 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3
The Secret Room The Gruffalo The Gruffalo 5 2 11 2 Roderick Hunt, 1.1 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Julia Donaldson, 2.3
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Pirate Adventure In the Garden 6 8 9 10 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3 Roderick Hunt, 1.4 Roderick Hunt, 1.8
The Magic Key Land of the Dinosaurs The Secret Room 7 6 10 4 Roderick Hunt, 1.3 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.1
In the Garden We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Robin Hood 8 7 7 21 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3 Roderick Hunt, 2.2
Pirate Adventure The Magic Key Kipper and the Giant 9 10 8 19 Roderick Hunt, 1.4 Roderick Hunt, 1.3 Roderick Hunt, 2.0
A Fright in the Night A Monster Mistake The Outing 10 5 17 14 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Roderick Hunt, 1.6 Roderick Hunt, 2.0
Kipper and the Giant In the Garden Gran 11 19 15 11 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Roderick Hunt, 1.4
The Outing A Fright in the Night Tara’s Party 12 15 5 30 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Julia Donaldson, 1.4
Robin Hood The Play The Play 13 13 14 25 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Roderick Hunt, 1.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.0
Gran Kipper and the Giant A Fright in the Night 14 11 22 5 Roderick Hunt, 1.4 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.8
Land of the Dinosaurs The Outing The Dragon Tree 15 14 18 7 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.2
The Play The Storm Noah’s Ark Adventure 16 16 6 36 Roderick Hunt, 1.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.7
A Monster Mistake Gran Pirate Adventure 17 17 12 17 Roderick Hunt, 1.6 Roderick Hunt, 1.4 Roderick Hunt, 1.4
Peace at Last The New House Vanishing Cream 18 18 19 15 Jill Murphy, 1.9 Roderick Hunt, 0.9 Roderick Hunt, 1.6
Noah’s Ark Adventure Robin Hood Peace at Last 19 30 16 8 Roderick Hunt, 1.7 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Jill Murphy, 1.9
Vanishing Cream The Go-kart Race The New Baby 20 20 38 31 Roderick Hunt, 1.6 Roderick Hunt, 1.9 Roderick Hunt, 1.6
47 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 3: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 2
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
The Gruffalo The Gruffalo The Gruffalo 1 2 1 1 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Julia Donaldson, 2.3
The Gruffalo’s Child The Gruffalo’s Child Owl Babies 2 1 2 2 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Martin Waddell, 2.4
Owl Babies We’re Going on a Bear Hunt The Gruffalo’s Child 3 3 4 3 Martin Waddell, 2.4 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3 Julia Donaldson, 2.5
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Owl Babies We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 4 4 3 4 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3 Martin Waddell, 2.4 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3
Peace at Last Peace at Last Peace at Last 5 7 19 5 Jill Murphy, 1.9 Jill Murphy, 1.9 Jill Murphy, 1.9
Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! Land of the Dinosaurs The Magic Finger 6 5 (Early Reader) 8 9 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Francesca Simon, 2.3
Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! The Magic Finger Robin Hood 7 8 9 6 (Early Reader) Roald Dahl, 3.1 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Francesca Simon, 2.3
Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! Robin Hood A Squash and a Squeeze 8 6 10 (Early Reader) 13 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Francesca Simon, 2.3
A Squash and a Squeeze Kipper and the Giant The Tiger Who Came to Tea 9 10 11 7 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Judith Kerr, 3.2
Room on the Broom The Outing The Smartest Giant in Town 10 9 17 16 Julia Donaldson, 3.7 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Julia Donaldson, 3.4
Lost in the Jungle Red Planet The Very Hungry Caterpillar 11 12 13 15 Roderick Hunt, 2.3 Roderick Hunt, 2.4 Eric Carle, 2.9
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lost in the Jungle Room on the Broom 12 16 15 10 Eric Carle, 2.9 Roderick Hunt, 2.3 Julia Donaldson, 3.7
The Outing Castle Adventure Five Minutes Peace 13 11 7 24 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Jill Murphy, 2.4
The Smartest Giant in Town Village in the Snow Hairy Maclary from 14 14 Julia Donaldson, 3.4 6 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 28 Donaldson’s Dairy Lynley Dodd, 3.3
Stick Man Green Eggs and Ham Robin Hood 15 18 5 11 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Dr. Seuss, 1.5 Roderick Hunt, 2.2
Kipper and the Giant The Very Hungry Caterpillar Stick Man 16 15 21 8 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Eric Carle, 2.9 Julia Donaldson, 2.8
Red Planet Farmer Duck Funnybones 17 20 18 30 Roderick Hunt, 2.4 Martin Waddell, 2.2 Janet Ahlberg, 3.6
Green Eggs and Ham In the Garden Handa’s Surprise 18 13 24 20 Dr. Seuss, 1.5 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Eileen Browne, 1.7
Land of the Dinosaurs Stick Man Aliens Love Underpants 19 21 16 48 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Claire Freedman, 2.9
The Tiger Who Came to Tea The Kidnappers The Outing 20 25 35 38 Judith Kerr, 3.2 Roderick Hunt, 2.4 Roderick Hunt, 2.0
48 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 4: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 3
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
The Magic Finger The Magic Finger The Magic Finger 1 2 3 1 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Roald Dahl, 3.1
The Gruffalo The Gruffalo The Gruffalo 2 1 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 1 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 2 Julia Donaldson, 2.3
Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! The Twits 3 3 (Early Reader) 2 (Early Reader) 4 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Francesca Simon, 2.3 Francesca Simon, 2.3
The Twits Fantastic Mr Fox George’s Marvellous Medicine 4 4 4 6 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Roald Dahl, 4.1 Roald Dahl, 4.0
George’s Marvellous Medicine The Twits Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! 5 7 5 3 (Early Reader) Roald Dahl, 4.0 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Francesca Simon, 2.3
Fantastic Mr Fox George’s Marvellous Medicine Room on the Broom 6 5 7 5 Roald Dahl, 4.1 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Julia Donaldson, 3.7
The Gruffalo’s Child The Gruffalo’s Child Fantastic Mr Fox 7 8 6 7 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Roald Dahl, 4.1
Horrid Henry’s Holiday Room on the Broom The Smartest Giant in Town 8 6 10 (Early Reader) 8 Julia Donaldson, 3.7 Julia Donaldson, 3.4 Francesca Simon, 2.8
Horrid Henry’s Holiday Room on the Broom The Gruffalo’s Child 9 10 (Early Reader) 9 9 Julia Donaldson, 3.7 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Francesca Simon, 2.8
Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick Horrid Henry’s Holiday The Smartest Giant in Town 10 9 8 (Early Reader) 11 (Early Reader) Julia Donaldson, 3.4 Francesca Simon, 2.9 Francesca Simon, 2.8
Horrid Henry and the Bogey Owl Babies Owl Babies 11 12 16 Babysitter 14 Martin Waddell, 2.4 Martin Waddell, 2.4 Francesca Simon, 3.2
Stick Man Robin Hood The Tiger Who Came to Tea 12 16 12 10 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Judith Kerr, 3.2
Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick A Squash and a Squeeze The Smartest Giant in Town 13 11 (Early Reader) 11 12 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Julia Donaldson, 3.4 Francesca Simon, 2.9
Horrid Henry’s Birthday Party Horrid Henry and Funnybones 14 14 (Early Reader) 14 the Secret Club 13 Janet Ahlberg, 3.6 Francesca Simon, 2.8 Francesca Simon, 3.2
A Squash and a Squeeze Stick Man Stick Man 15 18 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 19 17 Julia Donaldson, 2.8 Julia Donaldson, 2.8
Horrid Henry and the Football Funnybones Esio Trot 16 15 18 Fiend 16 Janet Ahlberg, 3.6 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Francesca Simon, 3.6
Lost in the Jungle Horrid Henry’s Birthday Party Esio Trot 17 20 28 Roderick Hunt, 2.3 18 (Early Reader) Roald Dahl, 4.4 Francesca Simon, 2.8
The Tiger Who Came to Tea Horrid Henry’s Stinkbomb Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick 18 13 Judith Kerr, 3.2 17 Francesca Simon, 3.2 15 (Early Reader) Francesca Simon, 2.9
The Cat in the Hat Horrid Henry’s Birthday Party Mrs Wobble the Waitress 19 21 Dr. Seuss, 2.1 13 (Early Reader) 19 Allan Ahlberg, 2.5 Francesca Simon, 2.8
Lost in the Jungle Horrid Henry Meets the Queen The Very Hungry Caterpillar 20 25 30 20 Roderick Hunt, 2.3 Francesca Simon, 3.2 Eric Carle, 2.9
49 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 5: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 4
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
The Twits The Twits The Twits 1 1 1 1 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Roald Dahl, 4.4
George’s Marvellous George’s Marvellous Fantastic Mr Fox 2 2 Medicine 2 3 Medicine Roald Dahl, 4.1 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Roald Dahl, 4.0
George’s Marvellous George’s Marvellous The Magic Finger 3 4 4 Medicine 2 Medicine Roald Dahl, 3.1 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Roald Dahl, 4.0
Fantastic Mr Fox The Magic Finger Fantastic Mr Fox 4 3 3 4 Roald Dahl, 4.1 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Roald Dahl, 4.1
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid Esio Trot 5 6 5 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Esio Trot Gangsta Granny 6 5 6 Rodrick Rules 6 Roald Dahl, 4.4 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang Gangsta Granny 7 7 7 Dog Days NULL David Walliams, 4.4 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress 8 8 Rodrick Rules 18 The Long Haul 8 David Walliams, 4.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 9 10 Dog Days 8 The Last Straw 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 10 9 David Walliams, 4.1 12 The Ugly Truth 7 David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Midnight Gang Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the 11 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 NULL Double Down 10 Chocolate Factory Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Roald Dahl, 4.8
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 12 14 The Last Straw 10 17 Rodrick Rules David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Demon Dentist Esio Trot 13 23 The Long Haul 16 14 David Walliams, 4.8 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny 14 16 The Ugly Truth 13 16 Dog Days David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Charlie and the Chocolate Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Mr. Stink 15 12 Factory 11 Hard Luck 15 David Walliams, 4.7 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The World’s Worst Children 16 13 David Walliams, 4.2 14 Cabin Fever 309 David Walliams, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.8
The Gruffalo Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Gruffalo 17 11 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 9 Old School 9 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Giraffe and the 18 19 Cabin Fever 19 The Third Wheel 13 Pelly and Me Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Roald Dahl, 4.7
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the Chocolate Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 19 18 Hard Luck 17 Factory 19 The Ugly Truth Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Brilliant World of The Gruffalo Awful Auntie 20 24 Tom Gates 15 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 27 David Walliams, 5.0 Liz Pichon, 4.0
50 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 6: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 5
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Midnight Gang 1 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 NULL David Walliams, 4.4
The Midnight Gang Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Twits 2 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 3 Rodrick Rules 1 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny The Twits 3 3 NULL Double Down 2 David Walliams, 4.9 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 4 4 Rodrick Rules 4 Dog Days 3 David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 5 9 The Last Straw 5 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: George’s Marvellous Medicine 6 7 Dog Days 5 The Last Straw 4 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: George’s Marvellous Medicine 7 6 David Walliams, 4.1 7 The Ugly Truth 6 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The World’s Worst Children 8 15 The Long Haul 6 Hard Luck 132 David Walliams, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Demon Dentist 9 9 The Last Straw 1 Old School 7 David Walliams, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 10 8 The Ugly Truth 8 Cabin Fever 8 Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Jeff Kinney,5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 11 NULL Double Down 10 David Walliams, 4.1 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Mr. Stink 12 10 Hard Luck 11 The Third Wheel 10 David Walliams, 4.7 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Twits Awful Auntie 13 11 Cabin Fever 12 Roald Dahl, 4.4 17 David Walliams, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.8
Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid: George’s Marvellous Medicine 14 14 13 David Walliams, 4.9 12 The Ugly Truth Roald Dahl, 4.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang Esio Trot 15 1 Old School NULL David Walliams, 4.4 11 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
The Boy in the Dress Fantastic Mr Fox Ratburger 16 12 14 15 David Walliams, 4.2 Roald Dahl, 4.1 David Walliams, 5.0
Fantastic Mr Fox George’s Marvellous Medicine Fantastic Mr Fox 17 17 16 21 Roald Dahl, 4.1 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Roald Dahl, 4.1
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 18 13 The Third Wheel 17 David Walliams, 4.2 20 The Last Straw Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Demon Dentist The Brilliant Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 19 18 David Walliams, 4.8 19 World of Tom Gates 24 The Long Haul Liz Pichon, 4.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
The World’s Worst Children Charlie and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 20 116 David Walliams, 5.3 18 Chocolate Factory 19 Cabin Fever Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.8
51 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 7: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 6
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
The Midnight Gang Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang 1 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 NULL Double Down NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang Gangsta Granny 2 NULL Double Down NULL David Walliams, 4.4 1 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The World’s Worst Children 3 4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 2 Hard Luck 162 David Walliams, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress 4 2 David Walliams, 4.9 4 The Long Haul 5 David Walliams, 4.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Awful Auntie 5 6 Rodrick Rules 5 Rodrick Rules 13 David Walliams, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 6 9 The Long Haul 6 Dog Days NULL Double Down Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7 8 Dog Days 3 Hard Luck 8 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 8 10 The Ugly Truth 1 Old School 4 David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Demon Dentist 9 12 Cabin Fever 8 The Ugly Truth 7 David Walliams, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Mr. Stink 10 7 Hard Luck 9 The Last Straw 6 David Walliams, 4.7 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 11 5 David Walliams, 5.1 11 Cabin Fever 11 Dog Days Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 12 13 The Last Straw 12 The Third Wheel 12 Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 13 1 Old School 10 David Walliams, 4.9 17 The Long Haul Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 14 14 The Third Wheel 13 David Walliams, 4.1 14 The Ugly Truth Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Boy in the Dress The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 15 11 David Walliams, 4.2 14 David Walliams, 4.2 16 Cabin Fever Jeff Kinney, 5.8
The World’s Worst Children The Twits The Twits 16 166 David Walliams, 5.3 16 10 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Roald Dahl, 4.4
Demon Dentist Demon Dentist Ratburger 17 15 David Walliams, 4.8 15 David Walliams, 4.8 9 David Walliams, 5.0
The Twits Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The World’s Worst Children 18 17 Roald Dahl, 4.4 172 15 Hard Luck David Walliams, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Mr. Stink Ratburger Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 19 16 David Walliams, 4.7 17 David Walliams, 5.0 18 The Last Straw Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Ratburger The Brilliant World Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 20 18 David Walliams, 5.0 21 of Tom Gates 19 The Third Wheel Liz Pichon, 4.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
52 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 8: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 7
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid Gangsta Granny 1 1 2 1 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 David Walliams, 4.9
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 2 3 The Long Haul 3 David Walliams, 4.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Mr. Stink 3 6 Rodrick Rules 4 The Long Haul 5 David Walliams, 4.7 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Girl Online: 4 3 Rodrick Rules 1 Old School 2 The First Novel by Zoella Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Zoe Sugg, 4.7
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 5 7 Dog Days 5 Dog Days 4 David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the 6 4 Old School 6 Hard Luck 6 Chocolate Factory Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Roald Dahl, 4.8
Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Awful Auntie 7 5 David Walliams, 4.1 8 The Last Straw 9 David Walliams, 5.0 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Twits 8 8 Hard Luck NULL Double Down 7 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Boy in the Dress Gangsta Granny Demon Dentist 9 9 7 10 David Walliams, 4.2 David Walliams, 4.9 David Walliams, 4.8
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 10 12 The Last Straw 10 The Ugly Truth 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 11 NULL Double Down 11 Cabin Fever 12 Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang 12 13 The Ugly Truth 12 The Third Wheel NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Mr. Stink Billionaire Boy Girl Online: On Tour 13 11 David Walliams, 4.7 9 David Walliams, 4.1 8 Zoe Sugg, 5.5
Charlie and the The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 14 10 Chocolate Factory 13 David Walliams, 4.2 15 The Long Haul Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 15 14 Cabin Fever 14 Chocolate Factory 14 Dog Days Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Brilliant World of Ratburger 16 16 The Third Wheel 18 Tom Gates 13 David Walliams, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Liz Pichon, 4.0
Mr. Stink Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Demon Dentist 17 17 15 David Walliams, 4.7 16 Old School David Walliams, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
The Twits Demon Dentist Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 18 15 Roald Dahl, 4.4 17 David Walliams, 4.8 19 The Ugly Truth Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Midnight Gang Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang 19 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 NULL 17 Hard Luck David Walliams, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Awful Auntie The Twits Harry Potter and the 20 19 David Walliams, 5.0 16 Roald Dahl, 4.4 28 Philosopher’s Stone J.K. Rowling, 6.0
53 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 9: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 8
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Girl Online: Going Solo 1 NULL Double Down NULL Double Down NULL Zoe Sugg, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 2 3 Rodrick Rules 2 Rodrick Rules 5 John Boyne, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
The Boy in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Girl Online: 3 11 Striped Pyjamas 4 The Long Haul 1 The First Novel by Zoella John Boyne, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Zoe Sugg, 4.7
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Girl Online: On Tour 4 5 The Long Haul 3 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 2 Zoe Sugg, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny 5 4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 5 Dog Days 3 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress 6 2 David Walliams, 4.9 1 Old School 9 David Walliams, 4.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Hunger Games 7 6 Dog Days 6 Hard Luck 4 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Mr. Stink 8 1 Old School 7 The Last Straw 8 David Walliams, 4.7 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the 9 10 Hard Luck 8 The Ugly Truth 6 Chocolate Factory Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Roald Dahl, 4.8
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Midnight Gang 10 13 The Last Straw 9 Cabin Fever NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.8
Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Billionaire Boy 11 7 David Walliams, 4.1 10 The Third Wheel 7 David Walliams, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Private Peaceful 12 15 The Ugly Truth 13 John Boyne, 5.8 16 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Hunger Games Billionaire Boy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 13 8 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 12 David Walliams, 4.1 14 Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Diary of a Wimpy Kid 14 12 Chocolate Factory 11 David Walliams, 4.9 15 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Roald Dahl, 4.8
The Boy in the Dress Private Peaceful Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 15 17 David Walliams, 5.2 16 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 18 The Long Haul Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the The Twits 16 16 Cabin Fever 15 Chocolate Factory 11 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Roald Dahl, 4.8
Private Peaceful The Hunger Games Awful Auntie 17 21 14 23 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 David Walliams, 5.0
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Dress Harry Potter and the 18 18 The Third Wheel 17 David Walliams, 4.2 28 Philosopher’s Stone Jeff Kinney, 5.6 J.K. Rowling, 6.0
Mr. Stink The Midnight Gang The Fault in Our Stars 19 19 NULL 12 David Walliams, 4.7 David Walliams, 4.4 John Green, 5.5
The Midnight Gang Mr. Stink Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 20 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 18 David Walliams, 4.7 NULL Double Down Jeff Kinney, 5.5
54 Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 Table 10: Top 20 Most Popular Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 9-11
Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Prior Book Title, Rank Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS Ranking Author, ATOS
Overall Boys Girls
Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men 1 1 1 1 John Steinbeck, 4.5 John Steinbeck, 4.5 John Steinbeck, 4.5
An Inspector Calls Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Girl Online: Going Solo 2 5 J.B. Priestley, 5.0 NULL Double Down NULL Zoe Sugg, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Hunger Games An Inspector Calls Girl Online: On Tour 3 2 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 7 J.B. Priestley, 5.0 3 Zoe Sugg, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Girl Online: 4 NULL Double Down 2 Old School 2 The First Novel by Zoella Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Zoe Sugg, 4.7
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: An Inspector Calls 5 3 Old School 6 Rodrick Rules 10 J.B. Priestley, 5.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Fault in Our Stars 6 8 John Boyne, 5.8 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 5 John Green, 5.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Hunger Games 7 9 Rodrick Rules 4 The Long Haul 6 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 8 13 The Long Haul 8 Dog Days 9 John Boyne, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Everything, Everything 9 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 9 Hard Luck 232 Nicola Yoon, 4.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.5
Charlie and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Harry Potter and the 10 7 Chocolate Factory 11 The Last Straw NULL Cursed Child Roald Dahl, 4.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 J.K. Rowling, 3.9
Harry Potter and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Harry Potter and the 11 21 Philosopher’s Stone 13 The Ugly Truth 12 Philosopher’s Stone J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 J.K. Rowling, 6.0
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Charlie and the 12 17 Dog Days 14 Cabin Fever 7 Chocolate Factory Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Roald Dahl, 4.8
Harry Potter and the Harry Potter and the The Hunger Games 13 NULL Cursed Child 3 16 Chamber of Secrets Suzanne Collins, 5.3 J.K. Rowling, 3.9 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
The Curious Incident of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: All the Bright Places 14 23 Dog in the Night-Time 12 The Third Wheel 34 Jennifer Niven, 5.3 Mark Haddon, 5.4 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Girl Online: Going Solo The Curious Incident of the The Curious Incident of the 15 NULL Zoe Sugg, 5.0 21 Dog in the Night-Time 15 Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon, 5.4 Mark Haddon, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Gangsta Granny 16 19 Hard Luck 19 Striped Pyjamas 14 David Walliams, 4.9 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 John Boyne, 5.8
Harry Potter and the Blood Brothers Divergent 17 28 Chamber of Secrets 26 Willy Russell, 4.1 8 Veronica Roth, 4.8 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Girl Online: Charlie and the Harry Potter and the 18 4 The First Novel by Zoella 17 Chocolate Factory 25 Prisoner of Azkaban Zoe Sugg, 4.7 Roald Dahl, 4.8 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 19 16 Hard Luck 15 Striped Pyjamas 20 Old School Jeff Kinney, 5.5 John Boyne, 5.8 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Gangsta Granny Blood Brothers 20 20 The Last Straw 18 David Walliams, 4.9 31 Willy Russell, 4.1 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
55 Appendix C: Most Popular Authors and Books Table 11: Most Popular Authors Overall: 2016, 2017 and 2018
Rank 2016 Author 2017 Author 2018 Author
1 Jeff Kinney (48) Jeff Kinney (55) Jeff Kinney (60)
2 David Walliams (26) David Walliams (31) David Walliams (31)
3 Roderick Hunt (25) Roderick Hunt (25) Roderick Hunt (24)
4 Roald Dahl (24) Roald Dahl (23) Roald Dahl (20)
5 Francesca Simon (11) Julia Donaldson (13) Julia Donaldson (14)
6 Julia Donaldson (8) Francesca Simon (6) Francesca Simon (5)
7= Suzanne Collins (4) Zoe Sugg (4) J. K. Rowling (3)
Martin Waddell (3)
8= Michael Rosen (3) Eric Carle (3) John Boyne (2)
John Green (3) Martin Waddell (3) Suzanne Collins (2)
Zoe Sugg (3) Judith Kerr (2)
Jill Murphy (2)
Michael Rosen (2)
Dr. Seuss (2)
Zoe Sugg (2)
9= John Boyne (2) John Boyne (2)
David McKee (2) Suzanne Collins (2)
Dr Seuss (2) John Green (2)
Jill Murphy (2) Judith Kerr (2)
Martin Waddell (2) Jill Murphy (2) Eric Carle (2) Michael Rosen (2) Judith Kerr (2) Dr Seuss (2) James Dashner (2) Veronica Roth (2)
10
New names for 2018 are emboldened
56 Appendix C: Most Popular Authors and Books Table 11a: Most Popular Book Titles in Primary School
Rank Book Author Number of times read
1 The Twits Roald Dahl 25,293
2 The Midnight Gang David Walliams 22,085
3 George’s Marvellous Medicine Roald Dahl 21,583
4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney 21,200
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox Roald Dahl 20,799
6 The Magic Finger Roald Dahl 20,478
7 Gangsta Granny David Walliams 20,452
8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules Jeff Kinney 20,194
9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Jeff Kinney 19,885
10 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Jeff Kinney 19,713
Table 11b: Most Popular Book Titles in Secondary School
Rank Book Author Number of times read 1 Gangsta Granny David Walliams 33,541 2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney 33,102 3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules Jeff Kinney 33,045
4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Jeff Kinney 32,183
5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Jeff Kinney 30,001
6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School Jeff Kinney 29,560
7 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Jeff Kinney 29,253
8 Billionaire Boy David Walliams 28,340
9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck Jeff Kinney 27,241
10 The Boy in the Dress David Walliams 26,040
57 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 12: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 3
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS The Twits 1 2 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Fantastic Mr Fox 2 1 Roald Dahl, 4.4 George’s Marvellous Medicine 3 5 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 4 4 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 5 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Gangsta Granny 6 6 David Walliams, 4.9
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me 7 14 Roald Dahl, 4.7 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 8 3 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Esio Trot 9 11 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Matilda 10 7 Roald Dahl, 5.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 11 8 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 12 20 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 13 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Billionaire Boy 14 9 David Walliams, 4.1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 15 10 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 16 27 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel 17 17 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 18 21 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 The BFG 19 15 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 20 24 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
58 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 13: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 4
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1 1 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 2 2 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 3 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 The Midnight Gang 4 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 5 7 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 6 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 7 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 8 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 9 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel 10 6 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 11 22 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 12 4 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Gangsta Granny 13 10 David Walliams, 4.9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 14 8 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 15 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 16 11 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Demon Dentist 17 19 David Walliams, 4.8 Ratburger 18 15 David Walliams, 5.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 19 21 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Awful Auntie 20 24 David Walliams, 5.0
59 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 14: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 5
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS The Midnight Gang 1 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2 4 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 3 2 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 4 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 5 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 6 7 J.K. Rowling, 6.8
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7 6 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 8 8 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 9 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 10 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 11 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 12 14 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 13 24 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 14 23 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 The World’s Worst Children 15 96 David Walliams, 5.3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 16 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel 17 21 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 18 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 19 20 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Gangsta Granny 20 10 David Walliams, 4.9
60 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 15: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 6
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS The Midnight Gang 1 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 2 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 3 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 4 6 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 5 5 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 6 7 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 7 10 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 8 NULL J.K. Rowling, 3.9 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 9 19 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 10 17 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 The World’s Worst Children 11 184 David Walliams, 5.3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 12 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 13 12 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 14 1 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 15 15 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 16 14 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 17 16 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Awful Auntie 18 20 David Walliams, 5.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 19 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 20 21 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
61 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 16: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 7
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS The Hunger Games 1 1 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 2 2 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 3 5 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4 9 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 5 12 J.K. Rowling, 6.8
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6 4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Catching Fire 7 7 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 8 19 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 9 NULL J.K. Rowling, 3.9 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 10 30 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 11 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Gangsta Granny 12 3 David Walliams, 4.9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 13 14 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 14 31 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 15 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 16 15 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 17 16 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 18 32 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Awful Auntie 19 17 David Walliams, 5.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 20 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5
62 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 17: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 8
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS The Hunger Games 1 1 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 2 NULL J.K. Rowling, 3.9 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 3 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 4 5 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 5 8 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 6 16 John Boyne, 5.8
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7 12 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Catching Fire 8 4 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Divergent 9 6 Veronica Roth, 4.8 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 10 21 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 The Maze Runner 11 2 James Dashner, 5.3 Girl Online: Going Solo 12 NULL Zoe Sugg, 5.0 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar 13 840 Children Ransom Riggs, 5.7 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 14 27 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Private Peaceful 15 18 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 16 26 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 Animal Farm 17 38 George Orwell, 7.3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 18 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5
The Fault in Our Stars 19 17 John Green, 5.5
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the 20 32 Night-Time Mark Haddon, 5.4
63 Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 Table 18: High-Achieving Top 20 Preferences: Year 9
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS Of Mice and Men 1 1 John Steinbeck, 4.5 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 2 NULL J.K. Rowling, 3.9 The Hunger Games 3 2 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 4 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.0 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 5 4 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 6 7 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7 10 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 8 21 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 The Maze Runner 9 5 James Dashner, 5.3 Divergent 10 8 Veronica Roth, 4.8 Animal Farm 11 13 George Orwell, 7.3 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar 12 790 Children Ransom Riggs, 5.7 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 13 16 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Everything, Everything 14 145 Nicola Yoon, 4.4 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 15 23 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the 16 12 Night-Time Mark Haddon, 5.4 All the Bright Places 17 28 Jennifer Niven, 5.3 Catching Fire 18 14 Suzanne Collins, 5.3 The Fault in Our Stars 19 11 John Green, 5.5 City of Bones 20 27 Cassandra Clare, 5.0
64 Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 Table 19: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Year 5
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! (Early Reader) 1 1 Francesca Simon, 2.3 The Gruffalo 2 2 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 Green Eggs and Ham 3 3 Dr. Seuss, 1.5 The Outing 4 5 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 The Cat in the Hat 5 20 Dr. Seuss, 2.1
Lost in the Jungle 6 30 Roderick Hunt, 2.3
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 7 14 Michael J. Rosen, 1.3 Robin Hood 8 4 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Kipper and the Giant 9 6 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Land of the Dinosaurs 10 10 Roderick Hunt, 2.0 Peace at Last 11 13 Jill Murphy, 1.9 Victorian Adventure 12 11 Roderick Hunt, 2.4 The Gruffalo’s Child 13 50 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Horrid Henry’s Holiday (Early Reader) 14 60 Francesca Simon, 2.8 Castle Adventure 15 8 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 A Fright in the Night 16 19 Roderick Hunt, 1.8 Tall Tilly 17 96 Jillian Powell, 1.6 Farmer Duck 18 21 Martin Waddell, 2.2 Village in the Snow 19 7 Roderick Hunt, 1.5 Owl Babies 20 33 Martin Waddell, 2.4
65 Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 Table 20: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Year 6
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
The Magic Finger 1 2 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Don’t Be Horrid, Henry! (Early Reader) 2 1 Francesca Simon, 2.3 The Gruffalo 3 3 Julia Donaldson, 2.3 The Twits 4 27 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Horrid Henry’s Holiday (Early Reader) 5 9 Francesca Simon, 2.8 Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick 6 18 (Early Reader) Francesca Simon, 2.9 Horrid Henry’s Birthday Party 7 6 (Early Reader) Francesca Simon, 2.8 Horrid Henry’s Car Journey 8 34 (Early Reader) Francesca Simon, 2.6 George’s Marvellous Medicine 9 102 Roald Dahl, 4.0 Fantastic Mr Fox 10 38 Roald Dahl, 4.1 The Gruffalo’s Child 11 13 Julia Donaldson, 2.5 Lost in the Jungle 12 10 Roderick Hunt, 2.3 Robin Hood 13 4 Roderick Hunt, 2.2 Horrid Henry and the Bogey Babysitter 14 89 Francesca Simon, 3.2 Victorian Adventure 15 12 Roderick Hunt, 2.4 Horrid Henry and the Secret Club 16 83 Francesca Simon, 3.2 The Cat in the Hat 17 37 Dr. Seuss, 2.1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 18 101 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Esio Trot 19 137 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Gangsta Granny 20 11 David Walliams, 4.9
66 Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 Table 21: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Year 7
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Boffin Boy and the Forest of the Ninja 1 1 David Orme, 2.5 Gangsta Granny 2 8 David Walliams, 4.9 Deadly Custard 3 10 Sue Graves, 2.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 5 6 Jeff Kinney, 5.4
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 6 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
The Twits 7 5 Roald Dahl, 4.4 It’s Time to Talk 8 4 Sue Graves, 1.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 9 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Boffin Boy and the Wizard of Edo 10 19 David Orme, 2.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 11 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 The Tunnel 12 18 John Townsend, 2.4 The Magic Finger 13 15 Roald Dahl, 3.1 Fishing for Trouble 14 7 David Orme, 2.1 It’s Unfair 15 23 Sue Graves, 2.0 The Boy in the Dress 16 33 David Walliams, 4.2 Vampires Are So Boring 17 3 David Orme, 2.5 The Robber 18 30 John Townsend, 1.6 Billionaire Boy 19 14 David Walliams, 4.1 So Funny 20 45 Philippa Bateman, 2.1
67 Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 Table 22: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Year 8
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 1 3 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 2 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 4 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 4 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 5 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 6 1 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 7 14 John Boyne, 5.8 Gangsta Granny 8 6 David Walliams, 4.9 The Twits 9 9 Roald Dahl, 4.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 10 10 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 11 11 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 The Boy in the Dress 12 12 David Walliams, 4.2 Billionaire Boy 13 7 David Walliams, 4.1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 14 13 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 15 8 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel 16 15 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 17 16 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 The Brilliant World of Tom Gates 18 20 Liz Pichon, 4.0 Private Peaceful 19 22 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 Mr. Stink 20 17 David Walliams, 4.7
68 Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 Table 23: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Year 9
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Of Mice and Men 1 1 John Steinbeck, 4.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 2 7 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down 3 NULL Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 4 3 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School 5 2 Jeff Kinney, 5.6
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6 5 Jeff Kinney, 5.2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days 7 6 Jeff Kinney, 5.2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck 8 8 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 An Inspector Calls 9 10 J.B. Priestley, 5.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 10 15 Jeff Kinney, 5.5 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 11 4 Roald Dahl, 4.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw 12 9 Jeff Kinney, 5.4 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 13 13 John Boyne, 5.8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever 14 16 Jeff Kinney, 5.8 Billionaire Boy 15 12 David Walliams, 4.1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel 16 17 Jeff Kinney, 5.6 Blood Brothers 17 21 Willy Russell, 4.1 Gangsta Granny 18 14 David Walliams, 4.9 The Boy in the Dress 19 23 David Walliams, 4.2 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the 20 27 Night-Time Mark Haddon, 5.4
69 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 24: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 3
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Dragon Hunter 1 1 Claire Llewellyn, 2.7 Finding Things 2 6 John Malam, 3.1 Rubbish! 3 4 Chloe Rhodes, 2.6 When Animals Invade 4 5 Chloe Rhodes, 2.4 Body Invaders 5 3 Jane Penrose, 2.3
Things That Sting 6 12 Brian Birchall, 3.4
Tigers in Trouble 7 19 Louise Spilsbury, 2.3 Cool Buildings 8 9 Mick Gowar, 3.4 World’s Fastest 9 11 Anne Rooney, 1.8 Look Closer 10 25 Alison Blank, 2.7 Think of an Eel 11 2 Karen Wallace, 3.5 Bizarre Buildings 12 8 Anne Rooney, 2.4 Wacky Sports 13 15 Anne Rooney, 2.4 Atlantic Adventure 14 18 Michael Perham, 3.2 The Water Cycle 15 21 Steve Parker, 2.9
Turn It Off! 16 23 Claire Llewellyn, 1.9
A Visit to the Farm 17 408 Michael Morpurgo, 2.8 Animal Magic 18 7 Mick Gowar, 1.9 Ants at Home 19 31 Haydn Middleton, 3.7
Crazy Food 20 14 Anne Rooney, 2.5
70 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 25: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 4
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Finding Things 1 19 John Malam, 3.1 Dragon Hunter 2 4 Claire Llewellyn, 2.7 The Emperor’s Egg 3 2 Martin Jenkins, 4.1 Boy: Tales of Childhood 4 3 Roald Dahl, 6.0 Things That Sting 5 12 Brian Birchall, 3.4
Growing Frogs 6 10 Vivian French, 3.5
Cool Buildings 7 11 Mick Gowar, 3.4 Rubbish! 8 16 Chloe Rhodes, 2.6 Body Invaders 9 7 Jane Penrose, 2.3 Animals in War 10 28 Jillian Powell, 2.9 Bizarre Buildings 11 8 Anne Rooney, 2.4 What Do You Want to Be? 12 27 Shilo Berry, 3.6 Wacky Sports 13 5 Anne Rooney, 2.4 When Animals Invade 14 13 Chloe Rhodes, 2.4 Let’s Play and Other Things Animals Say 15 34 Alison Blank, 3.6 Tigers in Trouble 16 20 Louise Spilsbury, 2.3 Big Blue Whale 17 17 Nicola Davies, 4.2 What’s Inside Me? 18 15 Diana Noonan, 4.0 World’s Fastest 19 14 Anne Rooney, 1.8 Crazy Food 20 6 Anne Rooney, 2.5
71 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 26: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 5
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Boy: Tales of Childhood 1 1 Roald Dahl, 6.0 The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: 2 5 How Greg Heffley Went Hollywood Jeff Kinney, 6.5 Safe Behind a Mask 3 16 Mick Gowar, 4.6 Animals in War 4 15 Jillian Powell, 2.9
Cool Buildings 5 19 Mick Gowar, 3.4
Going Solo 6 34 Roald Dahl, 6.1
The Tower of London 7 25 Becca Heddle, 4.5 Finding Things 8 10 John Malam, 3.1 Diamonds 9 24 Max Nichols, 4.1 The Emperor’s Egg 10 7 Martin Jenkins, 4.1 Let’s Play and Other Things Animals Say 11 87 Alison Blank, 3.6 The Beautiful Team 12 14 Haydn Middleton, 4.0 Crazy Food 13 31 Anne Rooney, 2.5 Tigers in Trouble 14 58 Louise Spilsbury, 2.3 Weird Little Monsters 15 62 Nic Bishop, 4.7 Bizarre Buildings 16 3 Anne Rooney, 2.4 Do Monsters Exist? 17 11 Sarah Fleming, 5.2 Training Like an Athlete 18 17 Nash Kramer, 4.2 Amazing Escapes 19 61 John Foster, 3.0 Ants at Home 20 27 Haydn Middleton, 3.7
72 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 27: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 6
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Boy: Tales of Childhood 1 1 Roald Dahl, 6.0 Going Solo 2 5 Roald Dahl, 6.1 The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: 3 2 How Greg Heffley Went Hollywood Jeff Kinney, 6.5 Jacky Daydream 4 4 Jacqueline Wilson, 6.2 Hard Work 5 19 Sarah Fleming, 5.2
Animals and Us 6 44 Claire Llewellyn, 5.1
Safe Behind a Mask 7 14 Mick Gowar, 4.6 Wayne Rooney 8 3 Roy Apps, 4.3 The Tower of London 9 33 Becca Heddle, 4.5 China’s Terracotta Army 10 52 Juliet Kerrigan, 5.3 What Happened to the Dinosaurs? 11 58 Jon Hughes, 5.5 Weird Little Monsters 12 49 Nic Bishop, 4.7 How to Shock Your Parents 13 55 Mick Gowar, 5.8 The Flick of a Switch 14 67 Chris Oxlade, 5.3 Do Monsters Exist? 15 28 Sarah Fleming, 5.2 Diamonds 16 73 Max Nichols, 4.1 The Moon 17 7 Becca Heddle, 5.4 Bradley Wiggins 18 9 Roy Apps, 4.2 The World’s Craziest Records 19 222 Suzanne Garbe, 5.5 All Pigs Are Beautiful 20 10 Dick King-Smith, 4.3
73 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 28: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 7
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Boy: Tales of Childhood 1 1 Roald Dahl, 6.0 Wayne Rooney 2 2 Roy Apps, 4.3 Jessica Ennis/Jessica Ennis-Hill 3 6 Roy Apps, 4.5 David Beckham 4 4 Roy Apps, 3.8 Goalkeepers 5 5 Jonny Zucker, 4.5 The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: How Greg 6 3 Heffley Went Hollywood Jeff Kinney, 6.5 Andy Murray 7 7 Roy Apps, 4.2 World’s Fastest 8 8 Anne Rooney, 1.8 Lewis Hamilton 9 9 Roy Apps, 3.9 Mo Farah 10 16 Roy Apps, 4.8 Football Legends 11 10 Clive Gifford, 3.9 Super Animals 12 18 Anne Rooney, 1.9 Movie Monsters 13 13 Danny Pearson, 4.5 Football 14 11 Paul May, 3.8 Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World 15 209 /I Am Malala/How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Malala Yousafzai, 5.9 Goal Scorers 16 12 Jonny Zucker, 4.7 Wacky Sports 17 31 Anne Rooney, 2.4 Bradley Wiggins 18 23 Roy Apps, 4.2 Zombies on the Loose 19 15 Anne Rooney, 3.9 Tiny but Deadly 20 35 John Townsend, 4.7
74 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 29: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 8
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Boy: Tales of Childhood 1 2 Roald Dahl, 6.0 Wayne Rooney 2 1 Roy Apps, 4.3 Jessica Ennis 3 3 Roy Apps, 4.5 Andy Murray 4 5 Roy Apps, 4.2 Goalkeepers 5 4 Jonny Zucker, 4.5
Football 6 7 Paul May, 3.8
Mo Farah 7 13 Roy Apps, 4.8 Football 8 9 Andy Smith, 6.6 David Beckham 9 6 Roy Apps, 3.8 Movie Monsters 10 20 Danny Pearson, 4.5 Bradley Wiggins 11 21 Roy Apps, 4.2 Lewis Hamilton 12 14 Roy Apps, 3.9 Daredevils 13 26 Alison Hawes, 4.5 Chris Hoy 14 15 Roy Apps, 4.8 Goal Scorers 15 11 Jonny Zucker, 4.7 Midfield Heroes 16 40 Jonny Zucker, 4.8 Tom Daley 17 22 Roy Apps, 5.2 Football Legends 18 16 Clive Gifford, 3.9 The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: How Greg 19 8 Heffley Went Hollywood Jeff Kinney, 6.5 Dangerous Stunts 20 19 Jonny Zucker, 5.6
75 Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9
Table 30: Non-fiction Books Read Most Often: Year 9
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Goalkeepers 1 1 Jonny Zucker, 4.5 Wayne Rooney 2 2 Roy Apps, 4.3 Goal Scorers 3 3 Jonny Zucker, 4.7 Football 4 5 Andy Smith, 6.6 Jessica Ennis/Jessica Ennis-Hill 5 7 Roy Apps, 4.5
Football 6 4 Paul May, 3.8
Boy: Tales of Childhood 7 26 Roald Dahl, 6.0 Theo Walcott 8 8 Andy Croft, 4.0 Mo Farah 9 10 Roy Apps, 4.8 Movie Monsters 10 18 Danny Pearson, 4.5 David Beckham 11 9 Roy Apps, 3.8 Andy Murray 12 6 Roy Apps, 4.2 James Bond 13 32 Danny Pearson, 4.9 Midfield Heroes 14 20 Jonny Zucker, 4.8 Dangerous Stunts 15 13 Jonny Zucker, 5.6 Football Legends 16 15 Clive Gifford, 3.9 Tom Daley 17 29 Roy Apps, 5.2 Body Art 18 23 Alison Hawes, 4.2 Fighter Planes 19 55 Cavan Scott, 4.8 A Street Cat Named Bob 20 183 James Bowen, 6.3
76 Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading
Table 31: 2011 Boys and Girls Fiction and Non-fiction Success Rates 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 87% 88% 88% 87% 88% 83% 88% 88% 90% APC Girls Girls passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 85% 83% 81% 81% 81% 81% 76% 76% 76% 76% 77% 77% 81% 79% APC Girls Girls taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 0% 87% 85% 85% 84% 84% 84% 84% 85% 84% 83% 81% 97% 85% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 0% 81% 76% 75% 76% 74% 74% 71% 69% 71% 66% 97% 75% 70% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 6% 5% 6% 6% 6% 6% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 4% 0% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 7% 4% 4% 4% 3% 2% 2% 4% 0% taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 88% 87% 87% 88% 88% 88% 83% 86% 87% APC Boys Boys passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 84% 81% 79% 79% 79% 74% 73% 74% 76% 77% 67% 77% 77% 80% APC Boys Boys taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 88% 85% 85% 84% 83% 84% 84% 84% 84% 85% 84% 91% 85% 80% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 82% 76% 74% 73% 72% 73% 69% 69% 69% 69% 63% 71% 72% 70% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 6% 9% 8% 9% 8% 6% 4% 9% 12% 11% 12% 12% 14% 10% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys percentage 6% 9% 9% 8% 6% 5% 11% 13% 11% 13% 12% 15% 10% 10% Boys taken Quizzes Quizzes percentage Non-fiction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 10 Mean Year
77 Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading
Table 32: 2014 Boys and Girls Fiction and Non-fiction Success Rates 89% 88% 88% 89% 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 88% 89% 89% 89% 90% APC Girls Girls passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 83% 82% 81% 81% 81% 82% 76% 77% 77% 77% 77% 82% 81% 80% APC Girls Girls taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 87% 86% 85% 84% 84% 85% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 81% 88% 85% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 78% 75% 74% 74% 76% 71% 71% 71% 77% 79% 74% 80% 70% 70% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 5% 6% 5% 6% 7% 7% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 5% 13% Girls Girls passed Quizzes Quizzes Nonfiction percentage 6% 6% 6% 6% 7% 7% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 6% 13% taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 89% 89% 88% 88% 88% 89% 87% 88% 87% 88% 87% 84% 88% 88% APC Boys Boys passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 83% 79% 79% 79% 74% 74% 73% 75% 75% 69% 74% 76% 80% 80% APC Boys Boys taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 87% 86% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 81% 84% 84% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 77% 73% 73% 73% 73% 69% 69% 69% 71% 69% 56% 73% 71% 80% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 7% 8% 8% 6% 11% 12% 12% 13% 13% 11% 25% 11% 10% 10% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys percentage 7% 8% 9% 9% 11% 12% 13% 13% 14% 13% 12% 24% 12% 10% Boys taken Quizzes Quizzes percentage Non-fiction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 10 Mean Year
78 Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading
Table 33: 2017 Boys and Girls Fiction and Non-fiction Success 89% 88% 89% 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 87% 87% 94% 89% 90% 90% APC Girls Girls passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 84% 82% 81% 82% 82% 76% 76% 77% 76% 74% 78% 91% 80% 80% APC Girls Girls taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 89% 86% 85% 85% 85% 86% 85% 86% 86% 84% 87% 92% 87% 90% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 83% 77% 75% 75% 76% 77% 71% 72% 72% 71% 78% 77% 86% 76% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 6% 6% 6% 7% 8% 8% 5% 5% 5% 5% 9% 5% 3% 6% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 6% 6% 7% 8% 8% 8% 5% 6% 5% 5% 8% 5% 3% 6% taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 89% 88% 88% 88% 87% 87% 88% 87% 88% APC Boys Boys passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 82% 79% 78% 78% 79% 74% 74% 74% 73% 73% 76% 77% 77% 80% APC Boys Boys taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 88% 86% 85% 85% 85% 85% 84% 84% 84% 83% 88% 84% 85% 85% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 76% 74% 74% 74% 74% 67% 67% 68% 67% 75% 72% 67% 72% 80% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 7% 8% 6% 12% 13% 13% 14% 16% 17% 16% 13% 10% 10% 20% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys percentage 7% 9% 7% 12% 13% 14% 11% 14% 17% 18% 19% 16% 13% 10% Boys taken Quizzes Quizzes percentage Non-fiction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 10 Mean Year
79 Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading
Table 34: 2018 Boys and Girls Fiction and Non-fiction Success 89% 89% 88% 88% 88% 88% 87% 87% 88% 85% 86% 84% 88% 87% APC Girls Girls passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 81% 84% 81% 81% 75% 75% 76% 72% 76% 79% 78% 80% 80% 80% APC Girls Girls taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 88% 86% 85% 84% 83% 85% 83% 84% 85% 83% 87% 84% 80% 80% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 79% 76% 74% 72% 75% 69% 68% 58% 76% 69% 80% 70% 80% 80% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 6% 7% 6% 7% 7% 6% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 1% 4% taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Girls Non- Girls percentage 88% 89% 87% 87% 87% 87% 87% 87% 88% 87% 88% 88% 89% 88% APC Boys Boys passed Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 81% 79% 78% 78% 78% 73% 72% 74% 73% 78% 76% 79% 77% 80% APC Boys Boys taken Fiction Quizzes Quizzes 0% 85% 86% 85% 83% 83% 83% 83% 83% 84% 84% 88% 83% 78% APC fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 0% 76% 77% 75% 71% 72% 72% 68% 67% 66% 67% 77% 72% 66% APC taken fiction Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys 9% 9% 6% 8% 6% 9% 0% 11% 11% 12% 12% 11% 10% 10% fiction passed Quizzes Quizzes Boys Non- Boys percentage 9% 9% 7% 8% 6% 9% 0% 11% 12% 13% 11% 12% 12% 10% Boys taken Quizzes Quizzes percentage Non-fiction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 10 Mean Year
80 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 35: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 1
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Pet Dog 1 799 Jean Coppendale, 0.8 Bush Fire! 2 2,141 Roderick Hunt, 2.1 Surprise Pancakes for Mum 3 3,270 Anne Giulieri, 1 Little Chimp and the Bees 4 2,330 Jenny Giles, 1.3
The Swan Family 5 877 Beverley Randell, 1.7
Little Chimp Runs Away 6 763 Jenny Giles, 0.8
Hocus Pocus Diplodocus 7 188 Steve Howson, 3.4 Flies 8 2,552 Sian Smith, 2.1 Mouse Paint 9 1,007 Ellen Stoll Walsh, 2.2 Eggs and Dandelions 10 2,342 Beverley Randell, 1.2 Chimp and Zee 11 1,946 Laurence Anholt, 2.3 Heather the Violet Fairy 12 204 Daisy Meadows, 3.9 Fire Trucks 13 NULL Carol K. Lindeen, 1.6 The Toytown Race Car 14 NULL Jenny Giles, 1.3 Iggy Pig’s Dark Night 15 2,935 Vivian French, 1.7 Awkward Aardvark 16 NULL Mwalimu, 2.9 Shumba’s Big Adventure (Early Reader) 17 912 Lauren St John, 3.3 Stormy Weather 18 183 Heather Hammonds, 1.8 Teasing Dad 19 777 Annette Smith, 0.9 The Beach House 20 2,015 Jenny Giles, 1.1
81 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 36: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 2
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 1 9 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Mr. Funny’s Red Nose Day 2 21 Adam Hargreaves, 2.5 Kangaroo 3 1,092 Jill Eggleton, 1.4 A Tiny Bit Lucky 4 225 Liz Pichon, 4.4 Don’t You Dare, Dragon! 5 6,512 Annie Kubler, 1
I Want a Cuddle! 6 90 Malorie Blackman, 2
The Smiley Snowman 7 789 M. Christina Butler, 2.6 Madeline 8 6,772 Ludwig Bemelmans, 3.1 Sleepy Little Caterpillar 9 427 Anne Giulieri, 1.5 The Midnight Gang 10 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Baby Dinosaur Can Play 11 2,394 Jay Dale, 1.2 Demon Dentist 12 2,439 David Walliams, 4.8 Happy Birthday, Sausage! 13 510 Michaela Morgan, 2.9 Snow Spoons 14 2,718 Jan Burchett, 0.9 Fiona the Flute Fairy 15 3,247 Daisy Meadows, 4.4 William and the Guinea-Pig 16 1,123 Gill Rose, 3 All in a Month 17 84 Monica Hughes, 1.1 The Brilliant World of Tom Gates 18 25 Liz Pichon, 4 Polly the Party Fun Fairy 19 473 Daisy Meadows, 4.3 Pet Dog 20 75 Jean Coppendale, 0.8
82 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 37: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 3
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 1 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury 2 668 Cressida Cowell, 6.9 Ali’s Story 3 5,031 Jan Wells, 1.1 The Midnight Gang 4 NULL David Walliams, 4.4 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 5 5 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 6 6 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7 7 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 The World’s Worst Children 2 8 NULL David Walliams, 4.7 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 9 8 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Drama Queen 10 288 Rachel Renée Russell, 4.9 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 11 11 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 12 193 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Puppy Love 13 45 Rachel Renée Russell, 4.3 A Special Friend 14 1,369 Linda Chapman, 3.6 The Butterfly Club 15 14 Jacqueline Wilson, 4.3 The Longest Whale Song 16 272 Jacqueline Wilson, 4.2 Hetty Feather 17 12 Jacqueline Wilson, 5.1 Born to Run 18 1,512 Michael Morpurgo, 5.2 The Magic Spell 19 1,543 Linda Chapman, 4.4 A Very Special Friend 20 235 Sue Bentley, 4
83 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 38: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 4
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 1 1 J.K. Rowling, 6 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2 59 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 3 2 J.K. Rowling, 6.7 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 4 3 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 5 4 J.K. Rowling, 7.2
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 6 64 J.K. Rowling, 7.2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 7 5 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 The Maze Runner 8 419 James Dashner, 5.3 Frenemies Forever 9 NULL Rachel Renée Russell, 4.9 The Christmasaurus 10 NULL Tom Fletcher, 5.8 Diamond 11 99 Jacqueline Wilson, 5.5 Quest for Justice 12 NULL Sean Fay Wolfe, 6.9 The Land of Stories: The Enchantress 13 1,631 Returns Chris Colfer, 5.3 Family, Friends and Furry Creatures 14 NULL Liz Pichon, 3.8 The Lost Hero 15 182 Rick Riordan, 4.5 Itch Rocks 16 458 Simon Mayo, 5.1 Wonder 17 203 R.J. Palacio, 4.8 Five Fall into Adventure 18 254 Enid Blyton, 4.4 The Mark of Athena 19 223 Rick Riordan, 4.8 Girl Online: On Tour 20 42 Zoe Sugg, 5.5
84 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 39: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 5
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 1 26 J.K. Rowling, 6.8 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2 27 J.K. Rowling, 7.2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 3 1 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 The Mark of Athena 4 6 Rick Riordan, 4.8 Skills from Brazil 5 9 Dan Freedman, 5.6
The House of Hades 6 7 Rick Riordan, 4.8
Girl Online: On Tour 7 47 Zoe Sugg, 5.5 The Blood of Olympus 8 10 Rick Riordan, 5.2 Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer 9 91 Rick Riordan, 4.8 Arsenic for Tea 10 11 Robin Stevens, 5.2 Girl Online: Going Solo 11 NULL Zoe Sugg, 5 Quest for Justice 12 NULL Sean Fay Wolfe, 6.9 Then 13 434 Morris Gleitzman, 3.8 Eragon 14 93 Christopher Paolini, 5.6 Oblivion 15 124 Anthony Horowitz, 5.3 Starlight 16 74 Erin Hunter, 5.9 The Hero Pup 17 671 Megan Rix, 5.1 Magyk 18 132 Angie Sage, 6 Kidnap in the Caribbean 19 154 Lauren St John, 5.7 Gareth Bale: The Boy Who Became a Galáctico/Bale: From the Playground 20 NULL to the Pitch Tom Oldfield, 5.7
85 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 40: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 6
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 20 J.K. Rowling, 6.9 The Lost Hero 2 38 Rick Riordan, 4.5 The Son of Neptune 3 40 Rick Riordan, 4.7 The Mark of Athena 4 45 Rick Riordan, 4.8 The House of Hades 5 2 Rick Riordan, 4.8
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer 6 3 Rick Riordan, 4.8
The Blood of Olympus 7 1 Rick Riordan, 5.2 Class A 8 53 Robert Muchamore, 5 Mortal Coil 9 223 Derek Landy, 4.7 Eragon 10 274 Christopher Paolini, 5.6 Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor 11 NULL Rick Riordan, 5.1 Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss 12 NULL Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs, 5.6 Gone 13 67 Michael Grant, 4.3 Last Stand of Dead Men 14 74 Derek Landy, 4.6 Flyte 15 919 Angie Sage, 6 Allegiant 16 61 Veronica Roth, 5.7 The Dying of the Light 17 77 Derek Landy, 4.7 Brisingr 18 110 Christopher Paolini, 7.8 Pegasus and the Flame 19 97 Kate O’Hearn, 4.5 Dowsing the Dead 20 571 Ali Sparkes, 5.2
86 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 41: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 7
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
Inheritance 1 35 Christopher Paolini, 7.5 The Inquisition 2 34 Taran Matharu, 6.7 The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning 3 53 Chris Colfer, 5.8 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 4 NULL J.K. Rowling, 6.9 The Blood of Olympus 5 72 Rick Riordan, 5.2 Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss 6 78 Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs, 5.7 Frozen Charlotte 7 80 Alex Bell, 5.3 Eragon 8 8 Christopher Paolini, 5.6 Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss 9 9 Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs, 5.6 Into the Wild 10 86 Erin Hunter, 5.6 Oblivion 11 1 Anthony Horowitz, 5.3 Light: A Gone Novel 12 13 Michael Grant, 4.6 Eldest 13 NULL Christopher Paolini, 7 Last Stand of Dead Men 14 20 Derek Landy, 4.6 Brisingr 15 410 Christopher Paolini, 7.8 The Dying of the Light 16 19 Derek Landy, 4.7 The Land of Stories: An Author’s Odyssey 17 16 Chris Colfer, 5.9 The Fever Code 18 104 James Dashner, 5.3 Flawed 19 128 Cecelia Ahern, 5.1 City of Heavenly Fire 20 136 Cassandra Clare, 5.8
87 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 42: Voting on Favourite Books: Year 8
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
A Court of Mist and Fury 1 NULL Sarah J. Maas, 5.9 Frozen Charlotte 2 361 Alex Bell, 5.3 Clockwork Prince 3 40 Cassandra Clare, 5.7 Inheritance 4 7 Christopher Paolini, 7.5 The Novice 5 24 Taran Matharu, 6.5
Empire of Storms 6 NULL Sarah J. Maas, 6.2
The Assassin’s Blade 7 86 Sarah J. Maas, 6.1 Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky 8 278 Chris Bradford, 6.7 The Inquisition 9 NULL Taran Matharu, 6.7 The Last Ever After 10 87 Soman Chainani, 6.2 Battle Lines 11 334 Will Hill, 6.5 The Rising 12 76 Will Hill, 7.5 A Dangerous Path 13 16 Erin Hunter, 5.9 Desolation 14 NULL Derek Landy, 4.4 Zero Hour 15 373 Will Hill, 6.8 Darkest Night 16 332 Will Hill, 6.7 Starlight 17 117 Erin Hunter, 5.9 Running Girl 18 1481 Simon Mason, 4.7 Girl Online: Going Solo 19 NULL Zoe Sugg, 5 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 20 123 J.K. Rowling, 6.7
88 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 11
Table 43: Voting on Favourite Books: Years 9-11
Rank Prior Ranking Book Title, Author, ATOS
A Court of Mist and Fury 1 NULL Sarah J. Maas, 5.9 Empire of Storms 2 NULL Sarah J. Maas, 6.2 Brisingr 3 94 Christopher Paolini, 7.8 Queen of Shadows 4 129 Sarah J. Maas, 6.0 Inheritance 5 278 Christopher Paolini, 7.5
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 6 4 J.K. Rowling, 6.9
City of Glass 7 6 Cassandra Clare, 5.3 Frozen Charlotte 8 NULL Alex Bell, 5.3 The Book Thief 9 12 Markus Zusak, 5.1 A Game of Thrones 10 55 George R.R. Martin, 5.5 Throne of Glass 11 72 Sarah J. Maas, 5.7 City of Lost Souls 12 10 Cassandra Clare, 5.1 City of Heavenly Fire 13 1 Cassandra Clare, 5.8 Rising Storm 14 2647 Erin Hunter, 6.1 Clockwork Prince 15 14 Cassandra Clare, 5.7 Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer 16 17 Rick Riordan, 4.8 The House of Hades 17 67 Rick Riordan, 4.8 Clockwork Princess 18 16 Cassandra Clare, 6.1 Lady Midnight 19 2 Cassandra Clare, 5.3 The Blood of Olympus 20 15 Rick Riordan, 5.2
89 Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books
Table 44: Favourite Books within Primary Schools
Rank Book Author Number of Time Voted For 1 The Midnight Gang David Walliams 19, 150 2 Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets J. K. Rowling 11,640 3 Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone J. K. Rowling 11,504 4 Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 8,874 5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Jeff Kinney 8,299 6 Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 7,370 7 Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 4,239 8 Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling 3,292 9 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2,726 10 Hetty Feather Jacqueline Wilson 1,348
Table 45: Favourite Books within Secondary Schools
Rank Book Author 1 Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 7,642 2 Girl Online: Going Solo Zoe Sugg 5,509 3 Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 4,233 4 Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling 2,783 5 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2,487 6 Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon 2,320 7 Frozen Charlotte Alex Bell 2,230 8 The Blood of Olympus Rick Riordan 1,674 Hollow City: 1,665 9 The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Ransom Riggs Peculiar Children 10 The House of Hades Rick Riordan 1,237
90 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11
Table 46: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 1
England
Book Title Author
1 Village in the Snow Roderick Hunt
2 Castle Adventure Roderick Hunt
3 The Dragon Tree Roderick Hunt
4 The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson
5 The Secret Room Roderick Hunt
6 The Magic Finger Roderick Hunt
7 We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Michael J. Rosen
8 In the Garden Roderick Hunt
9 A Fright in the Night Roderick Hunt
10 Pirate Adventure Roderick Hunt
11 Kipper and the Giant Roderick Hunt
12 The Outing Roderick Hunt
13 Robin Hood Julia Donaldson
14 Land of the Dinosaurs Roderick Hunt
15 Gran Roderick Hunt
16 A Monster Mistake Julia Donaldson
17 The Play Roderick Hunt
18 Peace at Last Jill Murphy
19 Noah’s Ark Adventure Roderick Hunt
20 Vanishing Cream Roderick Hunt
Average ATOS and APC: England ATOS 1.6, APC 0.90
91 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11
Table 47: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 2 Average ATOS and APC: England ATOS 2.5, APC 0.90 Northern Ireland ATOS 1.7, APC 0.90 Scotland ATOS 2.3, APC 0.90 Republic of Ireland ATOS 2.8, APC 0.91 Author Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss Dr. Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Allan Ahlberg Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Martin Waddell Julia Donaldson Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Reader) Reader) Medicine The Twits Last Straw Book Title Republic of Ireland of Republic Hop on Pop The Gruffalo Farmer Duck Farmer (Early Reader) (Early Reader) The Great Race The Great Mrs Vole the Vet Vole Mrs Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger The Cat in the Hat Village in the Snow Village George's Marvellous George's Diary of a Wimpy Kid Kipper and the Giant Green Eggs and Ham Green Horrid Henry and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Horrid Henry's Car Journey Horrid Henry's Holiday (Early Football Fiend (Early Reader) Football Horrid Henry's Birthday Party Horrid Henry's Birthday Party Don't Be Horrid, Henry! (Early Author Roald Dahl Roald Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Michael J. Rosen Michael J. Francesca Simon Francesca Hunt Stick Man Book Title NorthernIreland It's Not Fair It's The Whatsit The Gruffalo Green Island Green Gran Is Cross Gran (Early Reader) The Big Match The Magic Key House for Sale House for The Great Race The Great The Dragon Tree The Dragon Pirate Adventure Pirate Vanishing Cream Vanishing The Magic Finger Castle Adventure A Monster Mistake A Monster The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's A Fright in the Night A Fright We're Going on a Bear Going on a Bear We're Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Author Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss Dr. John Bush Roald Dahl Roald Jill Murphy Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Martin Waddell Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Michael J. Rosen Michael J. Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Hunt Scotland Book Title Red Planet Red Owl Babies Robin Hood Robin The Gruffalo The Lost KeyThe Lost Peace at Last Peace (Early Reader) Monkey Puzzle Monkey Sharing a Shell The Magic Finger The Cat in the Hat The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Party (Early Reader) Party A Fright in the Night A Fright Room on the Broom Room Kipper and the Giant Green Eggs and Ham Green Land of the Dinosaurs We're Going on a Bear Going on a Bear We're Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Horrid Henry's Birthday The Fish Who Could Wish Rosen Author Eric Carle Michael J. Roald Dahl Roald Jill Murphy Judith Kerr Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Martin Waddell Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Francesca Simon Francesca Hunt Town England to Tea Squeeze Stick Man Caterpillar Book Title Red Planet Red The Outing Owl Babies Robin Hood Robin The Gruffalo Peace at Last Peace (Early Reader) A Squash and a The Kidnappers The Very Hungry The Magic Finger Lost in the Jungle Lost The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Room on the Broom Room Kipper and the Giant The Tiger Who Came The Tiger The Smartest Giant in The Smartest Land of the Dinosaurs We're Going on a Bear Going on a Bear We're Don't Be Horrid, Henry! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
92 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11
Table 48: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 3 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): England, ATOS 4.8 (4.5), APC 0.91 (0.90) Northern Ireland ATOS 2.4 (2.5), APC 0.90(0.89) Scotland ATOS 4.8 (4.9), APC 0.92 (0.90) Republic of Ireland ATOS 4.6, APC 0.93
Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Luck Days Rules Down Queen School Reader) Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Long Haul Long Ugly Truth Ugly Last Straw Book Title Republic of Ireland of Republic Billionaire Boy Billionaire Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger The Midnight Gang George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Horrid Henry the Meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Don't Be Horrid, Henry! (Early Author Roald Dahl Roald Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Michael J. Rosen Michael J. Francesca Simon Francesca Hunt Stick Man Book Title Red Planet Red NorthernIreland The Outing Robin Hood Robin The Gruffalo The Lost KeyThe Lost (Early Reader) The Kidnappers A Day in London The Broken Roof The Broken Viking Adventure Viking The Magic Finger The Flying Carpet Lost in the Jungle Lost The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Victorian Adventure Victorian Kipper and the Giant Land of the Dinosaurs We're Going on a Bear Going on a Bear We're The Rainbow Machine The Rainbow Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jill Murphy David Walliams Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Michael J. Rosen Michael J. Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Hunt Queen Scotland Factory Medicine The Twits Book Title Secret Club Secret The Gruffalo Peace at Last Peace (Early Reader) (Early Reader) Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger Bogey Babysitter Horrid Henry's Nits The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Party (Early Reader) Party George's Marvellous George's Quick (Early Reader) Room on the Broom Room Horrid Henry and the Horrid Henry and the We're Going on a Bear Going on a Bear We're Horrid Henry's Holiday Horrid Henry Rich Gets Horrid Henry the Meets Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Horrid Henry's Birthday What the Ladybird Heard What the Ladybird Charlie and the Chocolate Charlie and the Chocolate Author Dr. Seuss Dr. Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Judith Kerr Janet Ahlberg Janet Martin Waddell Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Town England to Tea Squeeze Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Stick Man Book Title Owl Babies The Gruffalo Funnybones (Early Reader) (Early Reader) A Squash and a Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger Bogey Babysitter The Cat in the Hat The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Party (Early Reader) Party George's Marvellous George's Quick (Early Reader) Room on the Broom Room The Tiger Who Came The Tiger Horrid Henry and the The Smartest Giant in The Smartest Horrid Henry's Holiday Horrid Henry Rich Gets Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Horrid Henry's Birthday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
93 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 49: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 4 Author Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Children Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic Simon Author Dr. Seuss Dr. Francesca Francesca Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald David McKee Michael Rosen David Walliams David Walliams Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Claire Freedman Claire Michael J. Rosen Michael J. Wales Book Elmer Peach Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Bear Hunt Bear Book Title telling Fish telling Superworm Comes Back Pelly and Me Pelly Charlie Cook's Charlie Cook's Save the World Favourite Book Favourite Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Don't Be Horrid, Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic We're Going on a We're The Magic Finger The Cat in the Hat Chocolate Factory Chocolate Tiddler: The Story- The Giraffe and the The Giraffe George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Room on the Broom Room Michael Rosen's Sad Michael Rosen's James and the Giant Aliens in Underpants Aliens in Underpants Henry! (Early Reader) Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Martin Waddell David Walliams Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Francesca Simon Francesca Simon Francesca Squeeze Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Stick Man Book Title NorthernIreland Owl Babies Secret Club Secret The Gruffalo (Early Reader) (Early Reader) Charlie and the A Squash and a Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger Chocolate Factory Chocolate Horrid Henry's Car The Gruffalo's Child The Gruffalo's Party (Early Reader) Party George's Marvellous George's Quick (Early Reader) Room on the Broom Room Diary of a Wimpy Kid Horrid Henry and the Journey (Early Reader) Horrid Henry's Holiday Horrid Henry Rich Gets Don't Be Horrid, Henry! Horrid Henry's Birthday Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Kid Scotland Dress Mr. Stink Mr. Medicine The Twits Book Title Kid: Dog Days The Boy in the Billionaire Boy Billionaire Demon Dentist Charlie and the Kid: Old School NorthernIreland 3.4(3.5), ATOS APC0.89 (0.89) Wales 3.5,ATOS APC 0.90 Republic ofIreland 5.0, ATOS APC 0.91 Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy The Magic Finger Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick Chocolate Factory Chocolate Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw George's Marvellous George's Author Liz Pichon Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams England Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Book Title of Tom Gates of Tom Kid: Dog Days Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy The Magic Finger Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Brilliant World Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average 4.8 (4.5), APC0.91 (0.90) ATOS England, (0.90) APC0.92 (4.9), 4.8 ATOS Scotland
94 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 50: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 5 Author McKenna Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Marita Conlon- Marita David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Tree Children Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Under the Hawthorn Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic Author Dav Pilkey Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Ian Whybrow David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Julia Donaldson Francesca Simon Francesca Francesca Simon Francesca Wales Mr. Stink Mr. Esio Trot Medicine The Twits Book Title Old School The Gruffalo Pelly and Me Pelly Rodrick Rules Rodrick Harry and the (Early Reader) Horrid Henry's Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long Charlie and the Haunted House Haunted Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger The Adventures of The Adventures Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Giraffe and the The Giraffe George's Marvellous George's Captain Underpants Captain The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Bucketful of Dinosaurs Bucketful Horrid Henry's Holiday Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Esio Trot Medicine Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title NorthernIreland Old School Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Midnight Gang George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Author Liz Pichon Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Scotland Children Medicine Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Tom Gates Tom Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist NorthernIreland, APC 0.92(0.91) 4.8 ATOS (5.1), Wales 4.2,ATOS APC 0.89 RepublicAPC ofIreland 0.93 5.1, ATOS Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Brilliant World of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
David David David David David David Author Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney England Children Medicine The Twits Book Title Kid: Dog Days Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Demon Dentist Kid: Old School Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick The World's Worst Worst The World's Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary Kid of a Wimpy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average APC(0.90) 5.0 (4.9), 0.92 ATOS England, APC0.92 (0.92) (5.0), 4.9 ATOS Scotland,
95 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 51: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 6 Author Michael McKenna Morpurgo Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. Louis Sachar Louis Marita Conlon- Marita David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Tree Holes Children Pyjamas Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang Kensuke's Kingdom Kensuke's Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Under the Hawthorn Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic The Boy in the Striped Author Michael Morpurgo Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Nina Bawden David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Wales Mr. Stink Mr. Esio Trot Medicine Dog Days The Twits Book Title Cabin Fever Carrie's War Carrie's Pelly and Me Pelly Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic The Magic Finger Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Giraffe and the The Giraffe Kensuke's Kingdom Kensuke's George's Marvellous George's The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Author Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Children Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Ratburger Hard Luck Hard Book Title NorthernIreland Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Author Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney J.K. Rowling J.K. David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Scotland Children Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third NorthernIreland (5.0), APC 5.1 0.93 (0.92) ATOS Wales 4.8,ATOS APC 0.85 Republic ofIreland 5.3, ATOS APC 0.92 The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's The Boy in the Dress Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
David David David David David David David David Author Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney England Children Mr. Stink Mr. The Twits Ratburger Book Title Kid: Dog Days Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Demon Dentist Kid: Old School Gangsta Granny Gangsta Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick The World's Worst Worst The World's Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly The Midnight Gang Kid: The Last Straw The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average APC(0.91) (5.1), 0.92 5.1 ATOS England (0.92) 5.2 (5.0), APC0 .93 ATOS Scotland 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
96 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 52: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 7 Author Michael Morpurgo Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney R.J. Palacio R.J. John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. Rowling J.K. Rowling J.K. Louis Sachar Louis David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Holes Wonder Children Pyjamas Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Cursed Child Cursed Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly Gangsta Granny Gangsta Private Peaceful Private The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang Prisoner of Azkaban Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Harry Potter and the Harry Potter and the Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic The Boy in the Striped Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Wales Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Ratburger Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Author McKenna Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Marita Conlon- Marita David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Tree Children Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title NorthernIreland Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third The World's Worst Worst The World's The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Under the Hawthorn Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Scotland Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick The Boy in the Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third Striped Pyjamas Chocolate Factory Chocolate Northern APC0.93 (0.91) Ireland (5.1), 5.1 ATOS APC0.89 (0.88) (5.1), Wales 5.1 ATOS Republic ofIreland 5.3, ATOS APC 0.90 The Midnight Gang Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's The Boy in the Dress Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: David David David David David David David Author Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney England Mr. Stink Mr. The Twits Book Title Awful Auntie Awful Kid: Dog Days Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Demon Dentist Charlie and the Kid: Old School Gangsta Granny Gangsta Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick Chocolate Factory Chocolate Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average APC(0.88) (5.0), .88 5.1 ATOS England 5.2 (5.0), APC0.91 (0.91) ATOS Scotland 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
97 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 53:: Variation in Reading by Region: Year 8 Author Zoe Sugg Zoe Sugg Zoe Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney R.J. Palacio R.J. John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. David Walliams David Walliams John Steinbeck Suzanne Collins Suzanne Solo Wonder Pyjamas Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Novel by Zoella Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third Of Mice and Men Of Mice Girl Online: Going Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Girl Online: The First Girl Online: The First Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic The Boy in the Striped Author Michael Morpurgo Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne Louis Sachar Louis David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Suzanne Collins Suzanne Wales Holes Pyjamas Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Private Peaceful Private Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Author Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Pyjamas Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title NorthernIreland Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Collins Author Suzanne Suzanne Zoe Sugg Zoe Roald Dahl Roald Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. Louis Sachar Louis David Walliams David Walliams Holes Scotland Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick NorthernIreland (5.0), APC 5.1 0.89 ATOS (0.88) (5.2), APCWales 5.1 ATOS 0.87 (0.88) Republic ofIreland 5.2, ATOS APC 0.90 The Boy in the Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Novel by Zoella Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third Striped Pyjamas Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Girl Online: The First Girl Online: The First Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: David David David David David Collins Author Michael Suzanne Suzanne Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Walliams Morpurgo Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne England Mr. Stink Mr. Book Title Kid: Dog Days The Boy in the Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Charlie and the Kid: Old School Gangsta Granny Gangsta Private Peaceful Private Kid: Cabin Fever Striped Pyjamas Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick Chocolate Factory Chocolate Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw The Hunger Games The Hunger The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average (0.88) (5.1), APC0.88 5.2 ATOS England 5.2 (4.5), APC0.87 (0.89) ATOS Scotland
98 Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 Table 54 Variation in Reading by Region: Years 9-11 Author Zoe Sugg Zoe Sugg Zoe Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney R.J. Palacio R.J. John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. David Walliams David Walliams John Steinbeck Suzanne Collins Suzanne Solo Wonder Pyjamas Dog Days Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Novel by Zoella Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third Of Mice and Men Of Mice Girl Online: Going Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Girl Online: The First Girl Online: The First Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Republic of Ireland of Republic The Boy in the Striped Author Michael Morpurgo Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne Louis Sachar Louis David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Suzanne Collins Suzanne Wales Holes Pyjamas Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Private Peaceful Private Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Author Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams Pyjamas Mr. Stink Mr. Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title NorthernIreland Old School Cabin Fever Awful Auntie Awful Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Demon Dentist Charlie and the Gangsta Granny Gangsta Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Midnight Gang The Boy in the Dress Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Collins Author Suzanne Suzanne Zoe Sugg Zoe Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne J.K. Rowling J.K. Louis Sachar Louis David Walliams David Walliams Holes Scotland Pyjamas Dog Days The Twits Hard Luck Hard Book Title Old School Cabin Fever Double Down Rodrick Rules Rodrick Billionaire Boy Billionaire The Long Haul The Long The Ugly Truth The Ugly The Last Straw Charlie and the Novel by Zoella Gangsta Granny Gangsta The Third Wheel The Third NorthernIreland APC0.85 5.2 (0.85) ATOS (5.1), Wales 5.2,ATOS APC 0.90 Republic ofIreland 4.6, ATOS APC 0.89 Chocolate Factory Chocolate The Hunger Games The Hunger Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Girl Online: The First Girl Online: The First Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Boy in the Striped Collins Author Michael Suzanne Suzanne Morpurgo Roald Dahl Roald Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney Jeff Kinney John Boyne David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams David Walliams England Mr. Stink Mr. Book Title Kid: Dog Days The Boy in the Kid: Hard Luck Kid: Hard Billionaire Boy Billionaire Charlie and the Kid: Old School Gangsta Granny Gangsta Private Peaceful Private Kid: Cabin Fever Striped Pyjamas Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Kid: Rodrick Rules Kid: Rodrick Chocolate Factory Chocolate Kid: The Long Haul Kid: The Long The Midnight Gang Kid: The Ugly Truth Kid: The Ugly Kid: The Last Straw The Hunger Games The Hunger The Boy in the Dress Kid: The Third Wheel Kid: The Third Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
99 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Average ATOS and APC (2017 in brackets): brackets): in APC(2017 and ATOS Average (0.86) APC0.89 (5.3), 5.2 ATOS England 5.1, APC0.89 ATOS Scotland ©Copyright 2018 Renaissance Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. All logos, designs, and brand names for Renaissance’s products and services, including but not limited to ATOS, Accelerated Reader, Star Reading and Renaissance are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries, registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States and other countries. All other product company names should be considered the property of their respective companies and organisations.
R61693