All Book Collections
Book Bands
Book bands are used by primary schools to help them grade KS1 and KS2 reading books and provide children with books at the right reading level. Book band levels start at Lilac (with wordless books) and KS1 book band levels extend to Lime, with KS2 levels offered up to super-confident readers in Year 6 reading at Black+ level. We have carefully collated single, book banded reading scheme collections from Bug Club, Read Write Inc, Collins Big Cat, Little Wandle and Oxford as well as Raintree, Ransom and many more. Pandora also offers mixed reading scheme collections organised by the commonly used book band colours containing books from leading UK reading scheme publishers that offer a way to broaden reading experiences and confidently increase stock with high-quality books at just the right level.
Our expert team at Pandora Books also read and level hundreds of ‘real’ books into book bands every year, taking the best children’s books by well-known and debut authors alike and enabling children to access just the right books matched to their reading ability.
Choosing a new reading scheme is a big investment for any primary school, both financially and the importance of getting a scheme that supports all pupils to learn to read quickly. All educational publishers will have carefully written schemes, drawing on research and the expertise of literacy consultants. However, you will want to ensure that you choose the right reading scheme for your school community considering factors such as: what existing resources you have; what system you are using for monitoring progression; and at what stage children are moving on to free reading (KS1 or KS2).
Updated guidance from the Department for Education on phonics is covered in The Reading Framework (updated July 2023) and will be important to review when updating your resources.
Pandora Books offer a wide range of recommended reading schemes for primary school classrooms including phonically decodable books that form part of a systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP). All our books are supplied with free protective jackets, so they last much longer.
Our aim at Pandora Books has always been to provide you with as much choice of the very best children’s fiction for primary schools, with as much added value, as we can. We meet with publishers and read a vast number of children’s books which we; assess for interest level, reading level, quality of writing and production, and age-appropriate content. We are a team of book experts that specialise in curating books for schools, reducing teachers’ workload by offering collections that meet schools’ needs. Whether you are looking for guided reading for Year 1, confident reads for Year 3 or high-quality texts to enthral Year 5, you can trust that we review and would highly recommend all the books in our collections.
Are you looking for the best topic books available to support learning in KS1 and KS2? All our topic book collections have been designed by a team with extensive knowledge of the primary school curriculum and a passion for non-fiction and the full range of subject areas. These collections comprise our recommendations for the best children’s books on each curriculum subject. All books are relevant, exciting and will support you in ensuring that your pupils’ learning is engaging and stimulating. We offer larger collections that will invigorate your library for a whole key stage and smaller, targeted collections that are ideal for focused study on a mini-topic or for selecting the best children’s books for non-fiction reading.
