Many of the books in the Usborne Reading Programme have Quicklinks to websites with videos, quizzes and activities to find out more about the story, the historical setting and the author. To find the Quicklinks for a book, go to usborne.com/Quicklinks and enter the title of the book.
The Usborne Reading Programme is a collection of over 150 available reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, graded in eight levels for guidance. Beautifully produced, with lively writing and fabulous illustrations, the books are designed to capture the imagination and build the confidence of beginner readers, and to motivate and inspire children who may find reading difficult or dull.
The programme has been developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, a leading expert in the teaching of reading, who helped to draw up the eight-level framework and who reads every title before publication. Alison helped to establish the key principles of the Usborne Reading Programme: exciting, engaging narratives that not only appeals to readers but also provides inspiration for their own writing, with lively, detailed design and illustration.
Non-fiction titles also draw on the expertise of specialists in the relevant areas. A number of these tie in with key topics in the UK National Curriculum, especially history.
Usborne First Reading and Usborne Young Reading provide a wide range of titles, both fiction and non-fiction, designed to support children at every stage of their reading journey. They promote the key principles of reading satisfaction and reading for pleasure, with lively, engaging storytelling and world-class illustration. They can be used at school or in the home.
Reading upwards through the levels reinforces a child’s sense of achievement and progress, from very short and simple stories to chapter books with ambitious narratives and minimal illustration. The programme includes well-loved fairy tales and folk tales, famous myths and legends and adaptations of literary classics, providing children with a fascinating introduction to the world of literature.
Themes
Grammar
Vocabulary
Content
Classic short stories (e.g. Just So Stories) and folktales, plus topic-based stories (e.g. On the Farm)
Present and simple past tenses; modal verb can; comparative adjectives.
Simple everyday vocabulary, familiar items.
Short single narrative followed by reading and comprehension puzzles.
As Level One, including less familiar folktales from around the world.
As Level One plus future tense; modal verbs could and must; comparatives and superlatives.
More descriptive and evocative vocabulary, always clear in context.
Single narrative plus character sheets and/or maps, and puzzles.
As Level Two plus original fiction and non-fiction (natural history life cycles).
As Level Three plus classic fairy tales.
As Level Two plus present and past tenses; range of modal verbs. Full range of tenses.
Powerful verbs and adjectives, clear in context.
More exotic elements and controlled use of idiom.
Single narrative with repeated elements, plus character sheets and/or maps but no puzzles. Single narrative.
Fairy tales, legends, original fiction and non-fiction (“The Story of...”)
Past tense narratives avoiding passives, embedded clauses, semicolons and colons.
Wide-ranging everyday vocabulary.
Several linked stories or one longer narrative in chapters. Direct and indirect speech, intertextual references.
As Series One plus adapted classics (Shakespeare).
Introduce more challenging sentence structure including embedded clauses.
More challenging, building on Series One; specialist or technical terms explained.
Single narrative in chapters, introduce irony and subplot, allowing opportunity for inference and deduction.
History, biographies, adapted classics including Austen and Dickens.
Full use of grammatical range, comparable with mainstream contemporary fiction or journalism.
Building on Series Two; may assume knowledge of specialist or technical terms.
Single narrative in chapters. Assume some relevant background knowledge.
Words
Sentence
First Reading Level One First Reading Level Two First Reading Level Three First Reading Level Four Young Reading Series One Young Reading Series Two Young Reading Series ThreeAll titles in the Usborne Reading Programme are submitted on publication to determine their Lexile levels and book bands, and to have quizzes devised for the Accelerated Reader programme. The levels and bands for each title are then made available in the Book information area in the online catalogue. You can find out more about the different levelling systems on the Usborne website.
Lexile® levels are the most widely used measure of readibility worldwide. A number of popular school tests can be used to determine a reader’s Lexile level. The reader can then choose books that match their own interests and preferences, at an appropriate Lexile level in order to extend and develop their reading.
Band 1 Pink
Band 2 Red
Band 3 Yellow
Band 4 Blue
Band 5 Green
Band 6 Orange
Band 7 Turquoise
Band 8 Purple
Band 9 Gold
Band 10 White
Band 11 Lime
Band 12 Brown
Band 13 Grey
Band 14 Dark Blue
Band 15 Dark Red
Book bands (left) are used extensively in UK schools as a readability scale from beginner level to fluency. These bands have been adopted by all of the most widely-used UK reading schemes. Many schools find it helpful to supplement reading schemes with other book-banded books in classroom or school libraries.
Accelerated Reader™ is a programme designed to promote and encourage literacy in schools. Originally developed in the US, it has expanded rapidly over the past 10 years in increasing numbers of UK and international schools. Many Reading Programme titles feature in the Accelerated Reader programme, and their interest levels and book levels are given on the Usborne website where available.
Full lists of Lexile levelled titles, book-banded titles and Accelerated Reader quizzed titles are available to download from the Usborne website.
Usborne Very First Reading is an exciting series of books for children who are just starting to learn to read, offering the appeal of imaginative rhyming stories and irresistible illustrations. The books are written to a well-researched framework based on the principles of synthetic phonics, and are designed to be shared and enjoyed with an adult.
Usborne First Reading titles are designed to be the first books a beginner will own and read for pleasure, with very light support from a parent or teacher. They encourage the reader to develop reading stamina, and include up to six pages of fun, reading-related puzzles.
Usborne Young Reading titles are designed to enable newly independent readers to become confident and fluent. With a wide range of lively chapter books, including adaptations of classics, history and biography and original fiction, there is something for everyone to enjoy.
Fairy Ponies and Fairy Unicorns are two delightful series of linked stories within Young Reading Level Three.
VFR Pirate Pat 9781409507031 £5.99
VFR Double Trouble 9781409530619 £5.99
VFR Captain Mac 9781409530626 £5.99
VFR A Bus for Miss Moss 9781409507055 £5.99
VFR The Perfect Pet 9781409530633 £5.99
VFR Grizzly Bear Rock 9781409507079 £5.99
VFR The Queen Makes a Scene 9781409507086 £5.99
VFR The Circus Under the Sea 9781409507147 £5.99
VFR Knight Fight 9781409507161 £5.99
FR1 How the Crab got his Claws 9781474937917 £5.99
FR1 The Ant and the Grasshopper 9780746096536 £5.99
FR1 Anansi and the Tug of War 9781409535829 £5.99
FR1 The Rabbit’s Tale 9781409535867 £5.99
FR1 The Sun and the Wind 9780746085288 £5.99
FR1 The Lion and the Mouse 9780746096604 £5.99
FR1 The Wish Fish 9780746085141 £5.99
FR1 On the Moon 9781409535782 £5.99
FR2 The Tortoise and the Eagle 9780746096611 £5.99
FR2 The Genie in the Bottle 9780746096482 £5.99
FR3 The Fly who Told Lie 9781474998826 £5.99
FR3 The Bug Who Wanted a Hug 9781474998833 £5.99
FR3 The Little Red Hen 9781474953481 £5.99
FR3 The Lion and the Mouse 9781474956550 £5.99
FR3 The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse 9781474956581 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur who Lost his Roar 9780746077146 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur who Roared for More 9781474985918 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur who Asked ‘What for?’ 9781474994989 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur who Ran the Store 9781474994996 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur with the Noisy Snore 9781474985925 £5.99
FR3 The Dinosaur Who Stayed Indoors 9781474991797 £5.99
FR3 The Ant and the Grasshopper 9781474956567 £5.99
FR3 The Golden Goose 9780746096642 £5.99
FR3 The Gingerbread Man 9780746073360 £5.99
FR3 The Fox and the Crow 9781474964340 £5.99
FR3 The Fox and the Stork 9781474964357 £5.99
FR3 Danny the Dragon 9780746096574 £5.99
FR3 The Little Red Hen 9780746070512 £5.99
FR4 How Tortoise Tricked the Birds 9781474998840 £5.99
YR3 Journey to the Centre of the Earth 9781409535904 £5.99
YR3 The Count of Monte Cristo 9780746097007 £5.99
YR3 White Fang 9780746096994 £5.99
YR3 The 39 Steps 9781409522294 £6.99
YR3 Pride and Prejudice 9781409522362 £5.99
YR3 Little Women 9780746067796 £5.99
YR3 Anne of Green Gables 9781409550693 £5.99
YR3 Oliver Twist 9780746077078 £5.99
YR3 Oliver Twist + CD 9781409505389 £6.99
YR3 Les Miserables 9781474938020 £5.99
YR3 The Three Musketeers 9780746085806 £5.99
YR3 Gladiators 9780746068304 £5.99
YR3 Pompeii 9780746068328 £5.99
YR3 The Odyssey 9781409522348 £5.99
YR3 Frankenstein 9780746089446 £5.99
YR3 Titanic 9780746068311 £5.99
YR3 The Impressionists 9780746090206 £5.99
YR3 Tutankhamun 9780746060179 £5.99
YR3 Cleopatra 9780746063255 £5.99
YR3 Julius Caesar 9780746075104 £5.99
YR3 Captain Cook 9780746064252 £5.99
YR3 Alexander the Great 9780746063262 £5.99
YR3 Leonardo da Vinci 9780746074428 £5.99
YR3 Henry VIII 9781409598862 £5.99
YR3 Florence Nightingale 9780746063279 £5.99
YR3 Winston Churchill 9780746068144 £5.99
YR3 The Second World War 9781409508113 £5.99
YR3 Anne Frank 9780746068182 £5.99
YR3 The Story of Slavery 9781801314800 £5.99
YR3 Queen Elizabeth II 9781801319171 £5.99
YR3 Martin Luther King 9780746068151 £6.99
YR3 Fairy Ponies Midnight Escape 9781409506287 £5.99
YR3 Fairy Ponies Unicorn Prince 9781409506362 £5.99
YR2 Fairy Unicorns The Magic Forest 9781474926898 £5.99
YR2 Fairy Unicorns Wind Charm 9781474926911 £5.99
YR2 Fairy Unicorns Enchanted River 9781474926928 £5.99
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