what kids are reading

2013

Ed

ition

What Kids Are ReadingThe Book-Reading Habits of Students in American SchoolsIntroduction by Roger Farr, Ed.D.

Why do kids read what they read? See inside for commentary from Avi, Doreen Cronin, Donald Driver, and Christy Levings.

What Kids Are Reading

The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools

Accelerated Reader, Accelerated Reader Best Practices, Accelerated Reader Enterprise, Accelerating learning for all, AR, AR Best Practices, AR BookFinder, AR Enterprise, ATOS, NEO 2, Renaissance, Renaissance Learning, the Renaissance Learning logo, Renaissance Place Home Connect, Renaissance Place Real Time, and STAR Reading are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries, registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States and other countries. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

© 2013 by Renaissance Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

Introduction © 2013 by Roger Farr. Why Do Kids Read What They Read? © 2013 by Avi.Why Do Kids Read What They Read? © 2013 by Doreen Cronin.Why Do Kids Read What They Read? © 2013 by Donald Driver.Why Do Kids Read What They Read? © 2013 by Christy Levings.

This publication is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. It is unlawful to duplicate or reproduce any copyrighted material without authorization from the copyright holder. For more information, contact:

RENAISSANCE LEARNINGP.O. Box 8036Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495-8036(800) [email protected]

4/13

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Preface

Welcome to the fifth edition of What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools. Upon publication each year, we hear feedback from educators and parents alike that this report serves useful in helping find books that whet students’ reading appetites. What Kids Are Reading ranks the books students are reading—cover to cover—based on the Accelerated Reader Real Time database, the largest of its kind, which for the 2011–2012 school year houses reading records for more than 8.6 million students in grades 1–12 from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books.

This year’s report explores the question, Why do kids read what they read? To that end, we sought feedback about student book selection from authors, educators, and, of course, kids. Commentary from authors Avi (Nothing But the Truth), Doreen Cronin (Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type), and Donald Driver (Quickie Makes the Team), as well as Roger Farr, Ed.D. (Professor Emeritus of Education at Indiana University), Christy Levings (National Education Association), and the kids can be found sprinkled throughout the report. In addition, the book lists within cover many possible influences for student reading choices, such as award winners, reading requirements, and college- and career-readiness standards, such as the Common Core State Standards.

So, turn the page and dive in to see what kids are reading and why. Below is a quick look at some trends that caught our attention. What will you find inside?

Influence of pop cultureThe billboard ranking in Section I (p. 5), which tracks how a book fared during the 2011–2012 school year compared to its prior-year ranking, shows the significant impact of popular culture on student reading. Many of the fastest risers are books recently made into movies, such as The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (rising from #210 last year to #28 this year for third graders), The Help by Kathryn Stockett (rocketing from #1,273 last year to #24 among this year’s high schoolers), and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the first book of a trilogy that has historically ranked highly in the middle grades and above, but this year had a new spike in elementary school readership, rising both in grade 4 from #1,478 to #24 and in grade 5 from #92 to #4.

Text complexity drops as high school reading requirements evolveIn conducting our review of high school required reading from 1907 to 2012 (p. 35), we noticed a tremendous amount of change, with very few titles demonstrating staying power by authors not named Shakespeare. Also, the complexity of assigned texts has sharply declined, from about 9.0 in the early 20th century to just over 6.0 in the early 21st century. This finding echoes other studies that have concerned policy makers about whether students are presented with sufficiently challenging material to help them prepare for college and career.

Early impact of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)Although newer works tend to dominate the top of the lists in this report each year, a number of classics have had notable jumps in popularity. Those making the most striking comebacks in grades 9–12 (p. 24) were William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth (published circa 1597 and 1606, respectively), Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1823). Likewise, examining the popularity of the CCSS exemplars revealed that, although not intended to be used as a curriculum, almost all of the Informational Texts and Stories Exemplars were read by a slightly greater proportion of students in 2011–2012 than the prior school year, suggesting the new standards may be influencing both curricular choices and less formal recommendations. Will that trend continue? It will be interesting to continue monitoring readership of the exemplars and the extent to which those titles become more prominent as assigned texts in high school.

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Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................................................................ iii

Introduction by Roger Farr, Ed.D., Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Education at Indiana University ............ 1

Section I: Overall Reading ................................................................................................................................... 5

Why Do Kids Read What They Read? by Donald Driver, author of Quickie Makes the Team...................... 7

Top 40 Books Read Overall and by Gender, Grades 1–12 .......................................................................... 8

Section II: Award Winners ................................................................................................................................. 27

Why Do Kids Read What They Read? by Doreen Cronin, author of Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type ... 29

Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938–2013 ....................................................................................................... 30

Newbery Medal Winners, 1922–2013 ........................................................................................................ 32

Section III: High School Required Reading, Past to Present............................................................................. 35

Why Do Kids Read What They Read? by Christy Levings, National Education Association ..................... 39

Top 40 Books Required in High School, 1907–2012 .................................................................................. 40

Section IV: Common Core State Standards Exemplars .................................................................................... 49

Why Do Kids Read What They Read? by Avi, author of Nothing But the Truth .......................................... 51

Common Core State Standards Exemplars—Informational Texts and Stories ........................................... 52

Appendix: About the Report ............................................................................................................................. 59

Table

Table A1: Students, Books, and Words by Grade ............................................................................................. 60

Figures

Figure A1: Sample AR Quiz Screen .................................................................................................................. 61

Figure A2: AR BookFinder Screen .................................................................................................................... 62

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Introduction

By Roger Farr, Ed.D.

Motivation Is Not a MysteryCan students be motivated to read through encouragement, providing rewards for reading, or proclaiming that reading is the key to all future academic success? All of those, and similar attempts to motivate students, may have short-term impact on getting students to read, but they do not produce lifetime readers.

Becoming a life-long reader is not based on badgering or rewarding students to read. Before discussing some of the factors that instill a motivation to read, we need a general definition of motivation. Motivationis a connection between the interests and experiences of a person that can be met through engagement in a particular task. How might that definition be exemplified in classrooms and promoted by teachers?

Motivation to read is the result of the interaction of three conditions: Motivation to read is the result of the interaction of three conditions: Motivation to read(1) a student’s interests and experiences, (2) a book or article that matches those needs and interests, and (3) a student’s success in reading. The task is to bring those three conditions together. It is not an easy task to accomplish but it is not only possible, it is accomplished by successful teachers all the time as the reading lists in this report suggest.

Knowing a student’s interests and experiences and matching those with a book or story that truly matches those interests and experiences will produce readers. However, a student’s interests and experiences are not merely a listing of things about which one may express interest. Interests are expressed when a person’s attention, concern, or curiosity is engaged; interests draw attention and arouse curiosity; interests direct actions and shape lives. Interests are what grab a student’s attention because he or she wants to engage in the activity even if the engagement is vicarious.

To capture a student’s attention, the book or the article has to meet the interests of the student at the action level and not merely at the topical level. For example, a young boy who is a big fan of NFL football may want to read about famous NFL players. On the other hand, that may not be his interest at all. He may not care about those players. What he wants to do is to play football and not read about famous players. He might be enthralled with a story about a

Roger Farr, Ed.D., Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Education at Indiana University, has taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. He is past president of the International Reading Association, which awarded him a citation for outstanding lifetime contributions to the teaching of reading and membership in the IRA Reading Hall of Fame. Farr was co-editor of Reading Research Quarterlyfor more than a decade. His program authoring includes numerous national basal and supplemental reading/language arts programs, including those targeting struggling readers, and a number of national and state assessments. During his tenure at Indiana University, Farr served as associate dean of the School of Education, Indiana University dean for research, director of the Reading Clinic, and director of the Center for Innovation in Assessment.

Motivation is a connection between the interests and experiences of a person that can be met through engagement in a particular task.

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boy a bit older than he is who overcame some problems to have success in sandlot football. Might he someday later in life be interested in reading about famous players? Perhaps, but not now. Now he wants to know about how to have success playing football and maybe about other kids who have struggled to make it. It is not an easy task to find the match, but the result is worth the effort. A thoroughly researched conclusion about learning is that students will put in the time and energy necessary to learn if they are interested in what they are learning and if they can relate to it.

Is that all there is to motivation, bringing a student’s true interests and the right book together? Not at all, there is another extremely important component. That component is making sure a student has success in meeting his or her needs. Reading with students as they read, making sure thoughtful discussions take place after reading, and providing opportunities for students to use what they have gained from reading can all foster both a feeling of success and learning the value of reading to meet goals.

What do students who are not motivated to read say about reading?Responses from student interviews and first-hand teacher experiences offer a window into what turns students off from reading:

• Reading is boring. I have to read about stuff that is dumb and not interesting.

• Reading is too hard. I don’t know all those words, and I don’t know what the story is about. Reading is not for me.

• Reading is not any fun. I want to play games and see things happen. I can see stuff on television and I learn from that.

What do teachers need to do to build motivation and reach students who are reluctant to read?

To be effective, one must provide the components necessary for motivating all students.

• Learn a student’s interests not just at a topical level but at the action level. A student might be interested in airplanes. But how is the interest viewed by the student? Does he or she want to build model airplanes? Has the student just visited a space agency and wants to know as much as possible about becoming an astronaut? Perhaps the student is just intrigued with what makes an airplane fly.

• Have a student read a book or article he or she already knows something about. This is one of the best ways to get students “into” a story or book.

• Connect reading to a subsequent activity. The activity may be as simple as explaining to others in the class what it takes to become an astronaut, or making a diagram that shows the comparison of the sail on a ship to the wing of an airplane.

• Do everything you can to make sure the reading experience is successful. This may mean reading aloud with the student at first. The first few pages of an article or the first chapter of a book is often make it or break it. If a reader does not get interested, even more so than before the reading started, the experience will probably be a loss. If the first few pages are difficult, the student will get little out of the reading besides that it is a struggle. As you read with the student, show your excitement and interest in whatever topic they have chosen.

• High-interest books motivate students to read. When books that engage readers feature interesting topics; appealing formats; rich imagery or description; important, valuable and relevant ideas; elements of surprise or excitement; and/or personal meaning and connections, such as to prior knowledge or

A thoroughly researched conclusion about learning is that students will put in the time and energy necessary to learn if they are interested in what they are learning and if they can relate to it.

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experiences, students will read. The right books do not just sustain a reader through a particular text, but instead can have broader effects of increased intrinsic motivation to read more generally.

• Reading, and learning activities that draw from text, should be purposeful and purpose driven. Providing students with a purpose question at the beginning of a reading helps activate schema and background knowledge, which in turn aids comprehension. Specific and general purposes for reading and learning are essential if we are to promote effective reading. Teachers can suggest a reading purpose, but then the teacher has to engage students in a discussion of the purpose so it becomes relevant to each student’s background and interests.

Is motivation different for struggling readers?The only difference is that struggling readers likely have not had exposure to positive reading experiences that will lead them to read more. Reading instruction for struggling readers should include a strong interactive and social component, fostering collaboration and providing community, and thereby inspiring motivation. These students benefit cognitively and affectively when given regular opportunities to read, write, and talk about text; reading, writing, and oral language skills improve as does a sense of competence, as well as responsibility for one’s own learning and the group’s.

In conclusion, motivation is not magic but it has to be understood if it is going to become effective, and without the impact of motivation, positive reading habits and increased reading ability are almost impossible to achieve. In talking about reading motivation, I often ask the group of teachers, or whomever the group might be, if they like to read and are positive about reading. Almost all of them proclaim their love of reading. I then ask them if they would like to borrow from me a book called, Statistics for Psychologists. Almost all of them decline vociferously but then quickly tell me what they want to read. The point is that it is not reading as a physical or mental activity that they are motivated to engage in. It is the topic and their reason for reading that is the motivation. This is even more important for those who are learning to read and beginning to develop an interest in reading. A wonderful book with which you may be familiar is Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. The title alone is engaging by its invitation for an answer to what happened because of Winn-Dixie. If you have wondered and then read this book, you know what motivation can be… and maybe it is magic.

Roger Farr, Ed.D.Chancellor’s Professor EmeritusIndiana UniversityCo-author of Successful Reader

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The Accelerated Reader Real Time database includes book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books during the 2011–2012 school year. The lists that begin on p. 8 rank the Top 40 Books Read Overall and by Gender, Grades 1–12. For comparison to prior year data, these lists also include a billboard-style ranking to show where each title placed in last year’s report.

Please note: Because schools may optionally record Please note: Because schools may optionally record Please note:demographic information about students in AR, gender data is available for approximately 66% of students. Thus, on the following pages, the overall category compiles student records for boys, girls, and students for which gender was not recorded, whereas when we report information for the boy and girl categories individually, records for students of unknown genderare excluded.

Why do kids read the books they read? What influences students’ reading choices? There is no doubt that many factors come into play each time a student pulls a book from a library shelf or downloads a new title on an e-reader. To explore in more depth what may be motivating students to choose one book over another, Renaissance Learning sought feedback about student book selection from authors, educators, and students. In this section, guest essayist Donald Driver, author of the Quickie book series, provides commentary (p. 7).

Section I: Overall Reading

“I’m reading Superfudgebecause my mom said it was good.”

-Third-grade girl

“I’m reading Little Womenbecause it looked like an interesting book and I wanted to know who the little women were.”

-Sixth-grade girl

“I’m reading Wings. I read it before and enjoyed the story line so I read it again.”

-Seventh-grade girl

“I’m reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because the Deathly Hallows because the Deathly HallowsI like wizards.”

-Seventh-grade boy

“I’m reading Hatchet because Hatchet because Hatchetit is a survival book; I love those.”

-Fourth-grade boy

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Why Do Kids Read What They Read?

By Donald Driver

First, I’d like to thank Renaissance Learning for being such a wonderful resource to kids everywhere and for giving me the opportunity to write this piece on why kids read the things they do. One thing people may not know about me is I read all the time. I love reading so much it drove me to write three of my own children’s books and an autobiography that will come out this fall! Reading is a gift that I have proudly passed on to my own kids and, hopefully, to the thousands of other children that have read my books.

Now, for the question at hand—why do kids read what they read? There certainly isn’t only one right answer to this question, in fact, I bet there are hundreds. That being said, when I was preparing to write this, the word I kept coming back to was joy.

Kids read what they read to have fun! No other activity invites kids to use their imagination quite like reading does; and for kids, using their imagination is fun because they get to make all the rules. They are the kings and queens of their own imaginations, and what little boy doesn’t want to be a king? What little girl doesn’t want to be a queen? There aren’t parents, teachers, or anyone else telling them what’s right or wrong and that makes reading truly special.

I can’t stress enough just how important reading is. No matter how fast I could run, how high I could jump, or how well I could catch a ball, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the ability to read. Reading, just like sports, takes practice. It is something you need to do every single day in order to be successful. I encourage all of you to find your inspiration in one of the millions of wonderful books out there and, most importantly, to use your imaginations and have fun!

Donald Driver

Donald Driver is the Green Bay Packers’ all-time leading receiver, a Super Bowl Champion, and a four-time Pro Bowl performer. His inspirational rise to the top of the game after overcoming countless obstacles, such as being homeless as a child, made him one of the most beloved players in franchise history.

In addition to his successes on the field, Driver has written three children’s books based on the bedtime stories he tells his own children at home. A portion of the proceeds for each book sold goes to benefit the Donald Driver Foundation, which helps underprivileged youth through scholarships, school funding, and meal programs.

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Grade 1In total, 940,387 first graders read 37,022,855 books and 23,881,603,535 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 23,405 for boys and 25,441 for girls. Approximately 25% of the books were read to students, 10% were read with students, and 65% were read independently.

Overall Boys Girls11–12 10–11

RankOverall

Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*

1 1 Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)

Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)


2 2 The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG) The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG) The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG)

3 3 Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.4, LG) Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG) Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.4, LG)

4 4 Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG) Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG) Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)

5 5 Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG) Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.4, LG) Biscuit Goes to School, Alyssa Satin

Capucilli (0.9, LG)

6 7 Biscuit Goes to School, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

Biscuit Goes to School, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG)

7 6 Biscuit Finds a Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

Biscuit Finds a Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

Biscuit Finds a Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

8 8 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss (1.7, LG) Go, Dog. Go!, P.D. Eastman (1.2, LG) Bathtime for Biscuit, Alyssa Satin

Capucilli (1.1, LG)

9 11 If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG)

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss (1.7, LG)

If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG)

10 10 The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) Biscuit's New Trick, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.0, LG)

11 9 Bathtime for Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.1, LG)

David Goes to School, David Shannon (0.9, LG)


12 13 Go, Dog. Go!, P.D. Eastman (1.2, LG) If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG)

Biscuit Wants to Play, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

13 12 Biscuit's New Trick, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.0, LG)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG)

14 14 David Goes to School, David Shannon (0.9, LG) Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) Biscuit Wins a Prize, Alyssa Satin

Capucilli (0.9, LG)

15 16 Biscuit Wants to Play, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

Bathtime for Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.1, LG)

Biscuit's Big Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

16 17 Biscuit's Big Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (2.9, LG)

Biscuit and the Baby, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

17 15 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (2.9, LG)

Buzz Boy and Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.3, LG)


18 18 Biscuit Wins a Prize, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

Biscuit’s New Trick, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.0, LG) Go, Dog. Go!, P.D. Eastman (1.2, LG)

19 19 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff (2.7, LG)

Biscuit’s Big Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

David Goes to School, David Shannon (0.9, LG)

20 20 Biscuit and the Baby, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG) Super Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura

Numeroff (2.7, LG)


Top 40 Books Read Overall and by Gender, Grades 1–12

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Grade 1 (continued)


RankOverall


21 21 Biscuit Visits the Big City, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.0, LG) Fly High, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.4, LG) Biscuit Visits the Big City, Alyssa Satin

Capucilli (1.0, LG)

22 22 If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

Hooray for Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG)

If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

23 32 There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff (2.7, LG)

Clifford the Big Red Dog, Norman Bridwell (1.2, LG)

24 31 Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) Biscuit Wants to Play, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG)

Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox, Grace Maccarone (0.7, LG)

25 23 Clifford the Big Red Dog, Norman Bridwell (1.2, LG) Shoo, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) Sleepy Dog, Harriet Ziefert (0.8, LG)

26 25 All by Myself, Mercer Mayer (1.3, LG) Biscuit Wins a Prize, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG) All by Myself, Mercer Mayer (1.3, LG)

27 24 Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox, Grace Maccarone (0.7, LG) I Spy Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown

(1.8, LG)

28 28 If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)


If You Give a Pig a Party, Laura Numeroff (2.2, LG)

29 26 Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown (1.8, LG) All by Myself, Mercer Mayer (1.3, LG) If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura

Numeroff (2.4, LG)

30 27 Sleepy Dog, Harriet Ziefert (0.8, LG) Biscuit Visits the Big City, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.0, LG)

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, Dr. Seuss (1.8, LG)

31 30 Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, Dr. Seuss (1.8, LG)

Clifford the Big Red Dog, Norman Bridwell (1.2, LG)

More Spaghetti, I Say!, Rita Golden Gelman (1.2, LG)

32 34 Super Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox, Grace Maccarone (0.7, LG)

Biscuit Meets the Class Pet, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.8, LG)

33 36 Fly High, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.4, LG) Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl!, Tedd Arnold (1.4, LG)

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

34 43 Shoo, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, Dr. Seuss (1.8, LG)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG)

35 40 Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl!, Tedd Arnold (1.4, LG)

Biscuit and the Baby, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (0.9, LG) I Was So Mad, Mercer Mayer (1.6, LG)

36 66 Buzz Boy and Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.3, LG)

Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown (1.8, LG) Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG)

37 29 If You Give a Pig a Party, Laura Numeroff (2.2, LG)

If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Laura Numeroff (2.1, LG)

38 33 More Spaghetti, I Say!, Rita Golden Gelman (1.2, LG) I Was So Mad, Mercer Mayer (1.6, LG) Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl!, Tedd Arnold

(1.4, LG)

39 35 I Was So Mad, Mercer Mayer (1.6, LG) Clifford Makes a Friend, Norman Bridwell (0.4, LG)

"Buzz," Said the Bee, Wendy Cheyette Lewison (1.4, LG)

40 37 "Buzz," Said the Bee, Wendy Cheyette Lewison (1.4, LG)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Mo Willems (0.9, LG)

Clifford Makes a Friend, Norman Bridwell (0.4, LG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by first graders was 1.4 overall, 1.4 for boys, and 1.4 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.

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Grade 2In total, 1,229,574 second graders read 69,036,161 books and 102,271,152,471 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 77,895 for boys and 82,921 for girls. Approximately 15% of the books were read to students, 5% were read with students, and 80% were read independently.


RankOverall




Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin (2.3, LG)

2 2 Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin (2.3, LG)

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin (2.3, LG)


3 3 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff (2.7, LG)

Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann (3.4, LG)


4 4 Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann (3.4, LG)






6 6 If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura

Numeroff (2.5, LG)

7 7 If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG)



8 8 The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG)

9 9 The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG) The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG) If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

10 10 If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Cynthia Rylant (2.2, LG)


11 11 Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Cynthia Rylant (2.2, LG) Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG) The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss (0.6, LG)

12 12 If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Laura Numeroff (2.1, LG)

If You Take a Mouse to School, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Cynthia Rylant (2.2, LG)

13 13 Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG) Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG)


14 14 Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG)

The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.2, LG)

Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG)

15 16 Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG)


If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

16 15 Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG) Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG) Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)

17 20 The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG) The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG) The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG)

18 21 If You Give a Pig a Party, Laura Numeroff (2.2, LG) Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman

(1.6, LG)

19 23 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss (1.7, LG)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG) Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG)

20 25 I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!, Dr. Seuss (2.2, LG)

I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!, Dr. Seuss (2.2, LG)



11


Grade 2 (continued)


RankOverall


21 49 If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss (1.7, LG) Amelia Bedelia, Peggy Parish (2.5, LG)

22 17 The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)

Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG) Corduroy, Don Freeman (3.5, LG)

23 19 The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.2, LG)

Henry and Mudge: The First Book of Their Adventures, Cynthia Rylant (2.7, LG)

I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!, Dr. Seuss (2.2, LG)

24 24Henry and Mudge: The First Book of Their Adventures, Cynthia Rylant (2.7, LG)

Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne (2.6, LG)

Henry and Mudge: The First Book of Their Adventures, Cynthia Rylant (2.7, LG)

25 18 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG) Super Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash,

Trinka Hakes Noble (2.2, LG)

26 22 Corduroy, Don Freeman (3.5, LG) Shoo, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG)

27 37 Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG) The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)

28 26 The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, Trinka Hakes Noble (2.2, LG)

Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG) Biscuit, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (1.4, LG)

29 52 There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG)

The Principal from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka (3.0, LG)

30 29 The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka (3.0, LG)

Danny and the Dinosaur, Syd Hoff (2.3, LG)

Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Doreen Cronin (2.3, LG)

31 36 There's a Wocket in My Pocket!, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG)

Hooray for Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.6, LG) I Just Forgot, Mercer Mayer (2.0, LG)

32 31 Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne (2.6, LG)

Buzz Boy and Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.3, LG)

The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.2, LG)

33 28 I Just Forgot, Mercer Mayer (2.0, LG) There's a Wocket in My Pocket!, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) The Tiny Seed, Eric Carle (2.7, LG)

34 27 The Principal from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)


The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats (2.5, LG)

35 30 Danny and the Dinosaur, Syd Hoff (2.3, LG)

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, Trinka Hakes Noble (2.2, LG)

There's a Wocket in My Pocket!, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG)

36 34 David Goes to School, David Shannon (0.9, LG) Corduroy, Don Freeman (3.5, LG) David Goes to School, David Shannon

(0.9, LG)

37 35 Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Doreen Cronin (2.3, LG)


The Principal from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)

38 32 Amelia Bedelia, Peggy Parish (2.5, LG) David Goes to School, David Shannon (0.9, LG)

Just Going to the Dentist, Mercer Mayer (2.4, LG)

39 41 Super Fly Guy, Tedd Arnold (1.7, LG) Fly Guy vs. the Flyswatter!, Tedd Arnold (2.1, LG)

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, Dr. Seuss (1.8, LG)

40 42 The Tiny Seed, Eric Carle (2.7, LG) If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG) Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by second graders was 2.3 overall, 2.2 for boys, and 2.3 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.

12

Grade 3In total, 1,309,518 third graders read 64,564,967 books and 243,222,173,523 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 175,577 for boys and 184,822 for girls.


RankOverall


1 8Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG) Dogzilla, Dav Pilkey (4.2, LG)

2 3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) Boom Town, Sonia Levitin (3.7, LG)

3 4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG)

4 2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) Charlotte's Web, E.B. White (4.4, MG)

5 1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney (5.5, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG)

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Judith Viorst (3.4, LG)

6 5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney (5.5, MG)

First Day Jitters, Julie Danneberg (2.4, LG)

7 6 Dogzilla, Dav Pilkey (4.2, LG) Dogzilla, Dav Pilkey (4.2, LG) The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka (3.0, LG)

8 7 Boom Town, Sonia Levitin (3.7, LG) Boom Town, Sonia Levitin (3.7, LG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

9 10 Charlotte's Web, E.B. White (4.4, MG) Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)


10 8 Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Judith Viorst (3.4, LG)

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka (3.0, LG) Penguin Chick, Betty Tatham (3.4, LG)


Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Judith Viorst (3.4, LG)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)


Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG)


13 12 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff (2.7, LG) Penguin Chick, Betty Tatham (3.4, LG) Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss

(1.5, LG)

14 15 Penguin Chick, Betty Tatham (3.4, LG) Charlotte's Web, E.B. White (4.4, MG) Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG)

15 17 First Day Jitters, Julie Danneberg (2.4, LG)



16 11 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG)

First Day Jitters, Julie Danneberg (2.4, LG)


17 18 Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG)

Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)


18 13 Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann (3.4, LG)

The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey (4.3, MG)


19 16 Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, Ed Young (3.5, LG)



20 22 Two Bad Ants, Chris Van Allsburg (4.7, LG)

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, Ed Young (3.5, LG)

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, Ed Young (3.5, LG)


13


H

Grade 3 (continued)


RankOverall


21 20 The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG)Captain Underpants and the Invasion...Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)

The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG)

22 23 If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff (2.5, LG) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura

Numeroff (2.4, LG)

23 21 If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG)

Two Bad Ants, Chris Van Allsburg (4.7, LG)

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst (3.7, LG)

24 30 The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG) Wolf!, Becky Bloom (3.5, LG) Wolf!, Becky Bloom (3.5, LG)

25 27 Wolf!, Becky Bloom (3.5, LG) Miss Nelson Is Missing!, Harry Allard (2.7, LG)

Two Bad Ants, Chris Van Allsburg (4.7, LG)

26 19Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst (3.7, LG)

Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG) A Bad Case of Stripes, David Shannon (3.8, LG)

27 24 Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG)Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)


28 210 The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG) Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne (2.6, LG)

Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, Barbara Park (3.0, LG)

29 25 Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner (4.0, MG)

The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG) Corduroy, Don Freeman (3.5, LG)

30 32 Tops & Bottoms, Janet Stevens (3.2, LG) The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG) Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin (2.8, LG)


If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Laura Numeroff (2.4, LG) Tops & Bottoms, Janet Stevens (3.2, LG)

32 26 The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.4, LG)

The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.2, LG) The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG)

33 28 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Judi Barrett (4.3, LG)

Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)

The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (2.1, LG)

34 42 The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg (3.8, LG)


Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo (3.9, MG)

35 31 The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (2.2, LG)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (2.9, LG) Amazing Grace, Mary Hoffman (3.5, LG)

36 35 Corduroy, Don Freeman (3.5, LG) Tops & Bottoms, Janet Stevens (3.2, LG) Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner (4.0, MG)

37 34 Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo (3.9, MG)

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, Dav Pilkey (2.5, LG)

Amelia Bedelia, Peggy Parish (2.5, LG)

38 36 Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne (2.6, LG) The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG) Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook, Barbara

Park (3.0, LG)

39 41 Tonight on the Titanic, Mary Pope Osborne (3.1, LG)

Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner (4.0, MG)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Judi Barrett (4.3, LG)

40 33 The Librarian from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler (3.2, LG)


Bad Kitty Meets the Baby, Nick Bruel (3.6, LG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by third graders was 3.7 overall, 3.8 for boys, and 3.6 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.

8 Title published after 2012 report publication.

14


Grade 4In total, 1,305,824 fourth graders read 47,253,713 books and 390,088,862,708 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 281,169 for boys and 301,025 for girls.


RankOverall









Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)







Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume (3.3, MG)




7 6 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume (3.3, MG)

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume (3.3, MG)





9 10 The Stranger, Chris Van Allsburg (3.7, LG)


Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Rachel Renée Russell (5.1, MG)

10 9 Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner (4.0, MG)


Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, Rachel Renée Russell (5.4, MG)

11 8 Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (3.4, MG)

Captain Underpants and the Invasion...Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)

The Stranger, Chris Van Allsburg (3.7, LG)

12 14 Grandfather's Journey, Allen Say (3.6, LG)

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)

Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG)

13 12 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson (5.1, MG)

The Stranger, Chris Van Allsburg (3.7, LG)

Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (3.4, MG)

14 11 Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)



15 13 The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey (4.3, MG)


Grandfather's Journey, Allen Say (3.6, LG)

16 16 Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG) Grandfather's Journey, Allen Say (3.6, LG)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson (5.1, MG)

17 15Captain Underpants and the Invasion...Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce (3.1, MG)

My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Christine King Farris (5.0, LG)

18 22


Big Nate Strikes Again, Lincoln Peirce (3.0, MG) Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG)

19 17Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)

Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part I: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets, Dav Pilkey (5.2, MG)

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (5.4, MG)


Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (3.4, MG)


15


Grade 4 (continued)


RankOverall



Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)

Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School, Mark Teague (3.6, LG)

22 19Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)


A Bad Case of Stripes, David Shannon (3.8, LG)

23 20 Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG) Big Nate on a Roll, Lincoln Peirce (2.9, MG) Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG)

24 1,478 The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers, Dav Pilkey (4.9, MG)

Charlotte's Web, E.B. White (4.4, MG)

25 118 Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Rachel Renée Russell (5.1, MG)


Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG)

26 23 Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (5.4, MG)

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Heat Wave!, Helen Ketteman (4.2, LG)

27 31 Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School, Mark Teague (3.6, LG)

Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers, Dav Pilkey (2.2, MG) The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG)

28 50 Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce (3.1, MG) Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG) The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG)

29 25 Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, Rachel Renée Russell (5.4, MG)


Akiak: A Tale from the Iditarod, Robert J. Blake (3.3, LG)

30 270 The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG) The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka (3.0, LG)

Bad Kitty Meets the Baby, Nick Bruel (3.6, LG)

31 86 Big Nate Strikes Again, Lincoln Peirce (3.0, MG)

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, Dav Pilkey (2.5, LG)

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

32 33 Akiak: A Tale from the Iditarod, Robert J. Blake (3.3, LG)



33 26 Charlotte's Web, E.B. White (4.4, MG) Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School, Mark Teague (3.6, LG)

Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty, Nick Bruel (3.6, LG)

34 30 Heat Wave!, Helen Ketteman (4.2, LG) Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (5.4, MG)

The Great Kapok Tree, Lynne Cherry (3.8, LG)

35 18 The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg

(3.8, LG)

36 37 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Akiak: A Tale from the Iditarod, Robert J. Blake (3.3, LG)


37 24


The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (3.1, LG) James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl (4.8, MG)

38 38 The Great Kapok Tree, Lynne Cherry (3.8, LG) Heat Wave!, Helen Ketteman (4.2, LG) Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth,

Barbara Park (3.0, LG)

39 35 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG) Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG) Bad Kitty Gets a Bath, Nick Bruel

(3.7, LG)

40 46 The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (2.6, LG) Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG)

Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella, Robert D. San Souci (3.7, LG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by fourth graders was 4.6 overall, 4.5 for boys, and 4.4 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


16


Grade 5In total, 1,270,305 fifth graders read 34,388,276 books and 500,680,145,437 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 367,347 for boys and 402,863 for girls.


RankOverall











4 92 The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)












8 6 Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Rachel Renée Russell (5.1, MG)

9 7 Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG) Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, Rachel Renée Russell (5.4, MG)

10 8 Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG) Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG) Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG)

11 194 Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare (4.9, MG) Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG)

12 10 The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare (4.9, MG)

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Frindle, Andrew Clements (5.4, MG)

13 38 Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Rachel Renée Russell (5.1, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG)

14 14 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)



The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare (4.9, MG)

16 8Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG)

The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG)

The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (6.4, MG)

17 9 The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)

The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)


18 13 The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (6.4, MG)


Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (4.6, MG)

19 15 Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (5.4, MG)

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce (3.1, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG)

20 17 Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (4.6, MG)

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures, Brian Selznick (5.1, MG)

17


Grade 5 (continued)


RankOverall


21 43The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures, Brian Selznick (5.1, MG)

Big Nate Strikes Again, Lincoln Peirce (3.0, MG)

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG)

22 20 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG)

Captain Underpants and the Invasion...Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)

The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)

23 22 Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG)



24 27 Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG) Big Nate on a Roll, Lincoln Peirce (2.9, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

25 398 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG) Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG)

26 11 The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG)


The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)

27 34 Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)

The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (4.2, MG)

Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)

28 24 Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, Dav Pilkey (4.7, MG)


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG)

29 23 The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)


The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)

30 25 Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG) The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary

(4.9, MG)

31 8The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)



32 28 Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG) Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG) Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG)


The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG) Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG)

34 26 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) Dying to Meet You, Kate Klise (4.9, MG)

35 47 Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce (3.1, MG)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster, Debra Frasier (5.3, LG)

36 30 Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary (4.9, MG)


Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jamie Kelly, Jim Benton (6.1, MG)

37 37 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson (5.1, MG)

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG)


38 76 Big Nate Strikes Again, Lincoln Peirce (3.0, MG)

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Tom Angleberger (4.7, MG)


39 31 The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey (4.3, MG)

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG)

The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket (6.2, MG)

40 33Captain Underpants and the Invasion...Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space, Dav Pilkey (4.4, MG)


Am I the Princess or the Frog? by Jamie Kelly, Jim Benton (5.6, MG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by fifth graders was 5.2 overall, 5.1 for boys, and 5.2 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


18


Grade 6In total, 900,972 sixth graders read 14,955,239 books and 396,055,466,067 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 391,219 for boys and 456,354 for girls.


RankOverall















Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG) Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG)

6 6 Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)



Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG)

8 3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)




10 7 Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG) Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG)

11 36 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)





13 8 The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star,

Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG)

14 18 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG)

Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, Rachel Renée Russell (5.4, MG)

15 14 Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

(5.0, MG)

16 17 The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG) The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG)


17 8The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG)

18 21 The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)



19 10 The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG) The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG) The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG)

20 44 Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Rachel Renée Russell (5.1, MG)



19


Grade 6 (continued)


RankOverall


21 19 The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (6.4, MG)

The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG)

Freak the Mighty/The Mighty, Rodman Philbrick (5.5, UG)

22 26 Freak the Mighty/The Mighty, Rodman Philbrick (5.5, UG)


The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)

23 20 Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG) The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG)

24 8Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG) The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG)


The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG)

26 16 The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG) Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix (4.8, MG)

27 24 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)


28 13 The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (4.2, MG)





The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)

30 34 Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix (4.8, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan

(5.3, MG)

31 12 The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG)



32 15 The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG)

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix (4.8, MG)


33 22 The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)


34 29 The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket (6.2, MG)

35 31 Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Lincoln Peirce (3.1, MG)


36 27 Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (4.6, MG)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson (4.5, MG)





38 1,209 The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)



39 32 The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket (6.3, MG)

Big Nate Strikes Again, Lincoln Peirce (3.0, MG)

The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket (6.7, MG)

40 33 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (6.8, MG)


* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by sixth graders was 5.2 overall, 5.2 for boys, and 5.3 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


20


Grade 7In total, 673,039 seventh graders read 7,659,846 books and 285,739,507,337 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 357,493 for boys and 450,418 for girls.


RankOverall








3 10 Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG)

4 2 The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)


5 14 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney (5.5, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)


Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG)

7 5 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney (5.5, MG)






Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Rudyard Kipling (5.0, LG)




11 8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG)







14 19 Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Rudyard Kipling (5.0, LG)

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Rudyard Kipling (5.0, LG) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG)

15 12 Freak the Mighty/The Mighty, Rodman Philbrick (5.5, UG)



16 15 Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG)

17 20 The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG) The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963,

Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)

18 17 The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG)

Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (4.8, UG)


The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG)


20 22 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, Rachel Renée Russell (5.4, MG)

21


Grade 7 (continued)


RankOverall


21 23 A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG) The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)

Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Rachel Renée Russell (4.9, MG)


The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (4.2, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG)

23 16 The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (4.2, MG)

The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (4.7, UG)

24 18 The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

(5.0, MG)

25 24 Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG)

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG)


26 21 The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (4.9, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG)

27 1,294 The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)

Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen (5.3, MG)


28 26 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG)


Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG)

29 35 Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix (4.8, MG) The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG) The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket

(6.4, MG)




31 27 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG) Matched, Ally Condie (4.8, UG)

32 29 The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG) Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG)




Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard (4.5, UG)

34 33 Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen (5.3, MG)

Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz (5.1, MG+) Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (4.5, UG)

35 28 The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (6.4, MG) Tangerine, Edward Bloor (4.3, MG) The Cay, Theodore Taylor (5.3, MG)


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)


37 38 Tangerine, Edward Bloor (4.3, MG) A Christmas Carol (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (6.7, MG)

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, James Patterson (4.6, MG+)

38 30 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (4.8, UG)



39 37 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson (4.5, MG) Flipped, Wendelin Van Draanen (4.8, UG)

40 49 A Christmas Carol (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (6.7, MG) Inheritance, Christopher Paolini (7.5, UG) Someone to Love Me, Anne Schraff

(4.5, MG+)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by seventh graders was 5.2 overall, 5.2 for boys, and 5.2 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


22


Grade 8In total, 604,199 eighth graders read 5,981,922 books and 261,894,852,094 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 356,220 for boys and 475,424 for girls.


RankOverall





2 5 Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

(5.3, MG+)

3 1 The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG)

4 6 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

5 3 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG)

6 8Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff

Kinney (5.8, MG)



The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG)

8 11 The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG)

The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG)

9 9 The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich (3.1, MG)


The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich (3.1, MG)


The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG)





12 8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG)





Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney (5.2, MG) Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG)

15 16 The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich (3.1, MG)



Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG) Matched, Ally Condie (4.8, UG)

17 21 A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG) The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG)

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG)

18 19 Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne (5.8, UG)

19 20 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG)

The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)


20 14 The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG) The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney

(5.2, MG)

23


Grade 8 (continued)


RankOverall



The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) Beastly, Alex Flinn (3.7, UG)

22 31 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne (5.8, UG)


Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard (4.5, UG)

23 26 The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney (5.4, MG)

24 2,445 The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG) Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan

(4.7, MG)

25 18 The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG) Inheritance, Christopher Paolini (7.5, UG) Someone to Love Me, Anne Schraff

(4.5, MG+)

26 17 The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (4.2, MG) Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,

J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG)

27 23 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (4.8, UG)

Freak the Mighty/The Mighty, Rodman Philbrick (5.5, UG) New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (4.7, UG)


The Call of the Wild, Jack London (8.0, MG) The Pigman, Paul Zindel (5.5, UG)

29 25 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG) The Pigman, Paul Zindel (5.5, UG) Uglies, Scott Westerfeld (5.2, MG+)

30 40 The Call of the Wild, Jack London (8.0, MG)


Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (3.9, MG+)

31 30 The Pigman, Paul Zindel (5.5, UG) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG) The Help, Kathryn Stockett (4.4, UG)

32 28 My Brother Sam Is Dead, James Lincoln Collier (4.9, MG)

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG) Nothing But the Truth, Avi (3.6, UG)

33 32 Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) My Brother Sam Is Dead, James Lincoln Collier (4.9, MG)

Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper (4.3, UG)

34 34 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG) Nothing But the Truth, Avi (3.6, UG) Harry Potter and the Chamber of

Secrets, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG)

35 35 Nothing But the Truth, Avi (3.6, UG) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne (5.8, UG)

Forged by Fire, Sharon M. Draper (4.7, MG)

36 38 The Pearl, John Steinbeck (7.1, UG) Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz (5.1, MG+)


37 42 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (6.7, MG) Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (4.5, UG)

38 41 Freak the Mighty/The Mighty, Rodman Philbrick (5.5, UG) The Pearl, John Steinbeck (7.1, UG) The Pearl, John Steinbeck (7.1, UG)

39 45 Animal Farm, George Orwell (7.3, UG) Eragon, Christopher Paolini (5.6, UG) Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (4.5, UG)

40 56 The Monkey's Paw, W.W. Jacobs (6.5, UG)

The Ruins of Gorlan, John Flanagan (7.0, MG)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by eighth graders was 5.3 overall, 5.2 for boys, and 5.2 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


24


Grade 9–12In total, 455,684 ninth–twelfth graders read 2,683,046 books and 139,989,185,671 words during the 2011–12 school year. The average number of words read was 246,826 for boys and 338,795 for girls.


RankOverall








3 7 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (4.5, UG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+)

4 2 Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (4.5, UG) Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

(4.5, UG)

5 3 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG) Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

(5.6, UG)

6 4 Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG) Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG)

7 8 Animal Farm, George Orwell (7.3, UG) Animal Farm, George Orwell (7.3, UG) A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG)

8 10 A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG) The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG)

9 22 Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (8.6, UG) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer

(4.8, UG)

10 13 The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) Animal Farm, George Orwell (7.3, UG)

11 9 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG) Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (8.6, UG)

Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (3.9, MG+)

12 11 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (4.8, UG) Inheritance, Christopher Paolini (7.5, UG) The Help, Kathryn Stockett (4.4, UG)

13 12 The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Crank, Ellen Hopkins (4.3, UG)

14 17 The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.3, UG)

The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell (5.3, UG)

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (8.6, UG)

15 18 Lord of the Flies, William Golding (5.0, UG)

Lord of the Flies, William Golding (5.0, UG)

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.3, UG)

16 29 The Crucible, Arthur Miller (4.9, UG) The Crucible, Arthur Miller (4.9, UG) The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks (5.1, UG)

17 28 The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell (5.3, UG) A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG) The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks (5.5, UG)

18 15 Crank, Ellen Hopkins (4.3, UG) The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.3, UG) The Crucible, Arthur Miller (4.9, UG)

19 23 Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (10.8, UG)

The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan (4.6, MG) Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (4.5, UG)

20 19 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan (4.3, MG)

Marked: A House of Night Novel, P.C. Cast (5.4, UG)

25


Grade 9–12 (continued)


RankOverall


21 33 Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (3.9, MG+)

Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (10.8, UG)

The Lucky One, Nicholas Sparks (5.0, UG)

22 25 Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (4.5, UG) Frankenstein (Unabridged), Mary Shelley (12.4, UG) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG)

23 8The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) Dear John, Nicholas Sparks (5.5, UG)

24 1,273 The Help, Kathryn Stockett (4.4, UG) The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan (4.1, MG)

A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks (5.8, UG)

25 76 Frankenstein (Unabridged), Mary Shelley (12.4, UG)


Lord of the Flies, William Golding (5.0, UG)

26 8 Inheritance, Christopher Paolini (7.5, UG) Eragon, Christopher Paolini (5.6, UG) Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles (4.2, UG)

27 43 The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Gym Candy, Carl Deuker (4.6, UG) Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard (4.5, UG)

28 5 The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks (5.1, UG)

The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG) Beastly, Alex Flinn (3.7, UG)

29 32 Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper (4.3, UG) The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan (4.5, MG) Frankenstein (Unabridged), Mary

Shelley (12.4, UG)

30 27 The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks (5.5, UG) Hatchet, Gary Paulsen (5.7, MG) Glass, Ellen Hopkins (3.7, UG)

31 20 Marked: A House of Night Novel, P.C. Cast (5.4, UG) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG) The Most Dangerous Game, Richard

Connell (5.3, UG)

32 101 The Lucky One, Nicholas Sparks (5.0, UG)

The Maze Runner, James Dashner (5.3, UG) If I Stay, Gayle Forman (5.3, UG)


Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper (4.3, UG)

Betrayed: A House of Night Novel, P.C. Cast (5.4, UG)

34 14 Dear John, Nicholas Sparks (5.5, UG)We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success, Sampson Davis (5.8, UG)

Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen (4.7, UG)

35 26 A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks (5.8, UG)

The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan (4.8, MG)

Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (10.8, UG)

36 65 Macbeth, William Shakespeare (10.9, UG) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney (5.8, MG) Just Listen, Sarah Dessen (4.9, UG)

37 64 Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles (4.2, UG) Macbeth, William Shakespeare (10.9, UG) Burned, Ellen Hopkins (4.2, UG)



Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, Todd Burpo (6.3, MG+)

39 102 The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (5.5, MG) New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (4.7, UG)

40 87 Anthem, Ayn Rand (6.1, UG) Brisingr, Christopher Paolini (7.8, UG) Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper (4.3, UG)

* The average ATOS book level of the top 40 books read by ninth–twelfth graders was 5.6 overall, 5.7 for boys, and 5.4 for girls. Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.


2727

The Randolph Caldecott Medal and the John Newbery Medal are book awards given out annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). According to the ALA, the Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott and is awarded to “the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children,” while the Newbery Medal, the very first children’s book award, was named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery and is given to “the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” (www.ala.org).1

This section comprises the full lists of Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938–2013 (p. 30) and Newbery Medal Winners, 1922–2013 (p. 32) since the inception of these awards. The lists also include 10-year ATOS book level averages to show how the level of text complexity has changed over time for these awards and an overall ranking for each title within a specific grade range, grades 1–5 for the Caldecott winners and grades 6–8 for the Newbery winners, based on how frequently these titles were read during the 2011–2012 school year.

Why do kids read the books they read? What influences students’ reading choices? There is no doubt that many factors come into play each time a student pulls a book from a library shelf or downloads a new title on an e-reader. To explore in more depth what may be motivating students to choose one book over another, Renaissance Learning sought feedback about student book selection from authors, educators, and students. In this section, guest essayist Doreen Cronin, author of Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type, a 2001 Caldecott Honor Book, provides commentary (p. 29).

Section II: Award Winners

1 Honor Books are titles not awarded a medal but cited by the Caldecott and Newbery committees as “worthy of attention.”

“I’m reading A Ghost in the House because I like the House because I like the Housescary books!”

-Fourth-grade girl

“I’m reading Brisingr because my Grandma recommended it to me.”

-Seventh-grade boy

“I’m reading The Hunger Games for the sixth time Games for the sixth time Gamesbecause it’s awesome.”

-Fourth-grade boy

“I’m reading Ready Freddy: Tooth Trouble because I got Tooth Trouble because I got Tooth Troublefour teeth pulled.”

-Third-grade boy

“I’m reading The Power of Six. I chose to read it because the book I am Number Four was I am Number Four was I am Number Fourreally good.”

-Sixth-grade boy

2929


By Doreen Cronin

I have two grade-school daughters. One loves everything that the other one hates, and vice versa. We recently spent a few interesting hours at a petting zoo—one daughter grabbed a bucket of feed and a baby bottle (yes, they let you do that!) and ran up to the biggest llama she could find. The other one handed the bucket and the bottle right back to me and then declared the entire loud, smelly, disgusting visit “a horror show.” Our next stop was the aviary. One child delighted at the birds that landed on her arms to peck at a feeding stick. The other one, of course, threw the feeding stick on the ground and ran shrieking. One day, one family, two very different perspectives. If both girls were to sit down and write about the day’s adventure (would have been a great exercise, but I was way too tired!), one could be titled “The Day I Spoke to the Animals,” while the other would be “The Day I was Held Hostage in a Giant Bird Net.” The same varied tastes and preferences that children bring to the day, to the table, to their closets, and to the petting zoo, they bring to their reading.

My kids, like all kids, need different things to satisfy them. The girls always pack books for road trips to Grandma’s house and summer vacations. One child’s suitcase is full of graphic novels and nonfiction books. The other’s is full of princesses and puppies. If I switched their suitcases, it would be like switching their lunchboxes (which also have little in common). “Ew!” they would shriek. “This is gross! I hate this stuff. I’m gonna STARVE!” And rightly so. The wrong books might as well be the wrong food—or the wrong size shoes.

The books kids read largely depend on which part of the world is calling to them, confusing them, scaring them, or making them laugh. For that matter, it also depends on which part of themselves they are ready to show the world. For me, as a kid riding my bike to the library—it meant freedom. I can’t remember which books I read. But I can still remember the indescribable feeling of exercising choice. I had to go to school, I had to do my homework, I had to share a room with my sister, and I had to follow rules that I didn’t make. But my books were my choice. I could read whatever I wanted. Fiction, nonfiction, terrifying, supernatural, sappy, honest, funny, or straightforward. It’s a child’s first real exercise of choice. I don’t think kids know most of the time why they choose the books they do—they just get to choose—and that, in itself, can be enough to ignite that reading spark. Choice is powerful.

My trips to the library grew into bike rides to my friends’ houses where we would listen to albums—and spend hours reading and memorizing lyrics from the inside of the album covers. Later, Teen Beat and Teen Beat and Teen Beat Tiger Beat. Literature? Not at all. Powerful? Yes. We had freedom. We exercised choice. We read, laughed, wondered about, memorized and then grew out of old worlds and into new ones. We made choices that mattered—and still do.

Doreen Cronin is the New York Times best-selling author of picture books such as New York Times best-selling author of picture books such as New York Times Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, a Caldecott Honor Book; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; Duck for President; Mom Operating Manual; and the Diary of Worm, Spider, and Fly books. She also wrote The Trouble With Chickens, the first book in the J.J. Tully Mystery series, and its sequel The Legend of Diamond Lil. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

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Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938–2013

Caldecott Medal

Award Year Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*

2011–12 Rank,

Grades 1–5

10-Year ATOS Book Level

Average

2013 One Cool Friend, Toni Buzzeo (3.1, LG) (HB) 20,244

2012 Me...Jane, Patrick McDonnell (3.2, LG) (HB) 8,214

2011 A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Philip C. Stead (3.0, LG) 2,422

2010 Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, Joyce Sidman (3.2, LG) (HB) 12,151

2009 A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, Marla Frazee (3.4, LG) (HB) 2,891

2008 The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures, Brian Selznick (5.1, MG) 188

2007 Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, Carole Boston Weatherford (4.0, LG) (HB)

6,404

2006 The Hello, Goodbye Window, Norton Juster (3.4, LG) 1,463

2005 Kitten's First Full Moon, Kevin Henkes (2.3, LG) 351

2004 The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Mordicai Gerstein (3.7, LG) 907

2003 The Spider and the Fly, Mary Botham Howitt (4.8, LG) (HB) 1,038

2002 The Three Pigs, David Wiesner (2.3, LG) 1,103

2001 So You Want to Be President?, Judith St. George (4.8, MG) 1,397

2000 Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, Simms Taback (1.7, LG) 1,123

1999 Snowflake Bentley, Jacqueline Briggs Martin (4.4, LG) 846

1998 Rapunzel, Paul O. Zelinsky (4.6, LG) 2,832 3.6

1997 Golem, David Wisniewski (4.3, MG) 27,494

1996 Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann (3.4, LG) 17

1995 Smoky Night, Eve Bunting (2.4, LG) 3,141

1994 Grandfather's Journey, Allen Say (3.6, LG) 287

1993 Mirette on the High Wire, Emily Arnold McCully (3.6, LG) 2,412

1992 Tar Beach, Faith Ringgold (3.4, LG) (HB) 771

1991 Black and White, David Macaulay (3.4, LG) 8,271

1990 Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, Ed Young (3.5, LG) 184

1989 Song and Dance Man, Karen Ackerman (4.0, LG) 704

1988 Owl Moon, Jane Yolen (3.2, LG) 266 3.5

1987 Hey, Al, Arthur Yorinks (2.1, LG) 1,753

1986 The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg (3.8, LG) 50

1985 Saint George and the Dragon, Margaret Hodges (5.6, LG) 7,223

1984 The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot, Alice Provensen (2.6, LG) 8,538

1983 Shadow, Blaise Cendrars (3.2, LG) 16,631

1982 Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg (3.9, LG) 989

1981 Fables, Arnold Lobel (4.2, MG) 7,625

1980 Ox-Cart Man, Donald Hall (4.5, LG) 1,031

1979 The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, Paul Goble (4.1, MG) 1,738

1978 It Could Always Be Worse, Margot Zemach (3.7, LG) (HB) 9155 3.8

H


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Caldecott Medal (continued)


2011–12 Rank,

Grades 1–5


Average

1977 Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, Margaret Musgrove (4.9, LG) 35,788

1976 Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale, Verna Aardema (4.0, LG) 372

1975 Arrow to the Sun, Gerald McDermott (2.7, LG) 1,843

1974 Duffy and the Devil, Harve Zemach (4.9, LG) 26,841

1973 The Funny Little Woman, Arlene Mosel (3.6, LG) 1,529

1972 One Fine Day, Nonny Hogrogian (3.5, LG) 630

1971 A Story, A Story, Gail E. Haley (4.2, LG) 2,612

1970 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, William Steig (4.0, LG) 348

1969 The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship: A Russian Tale, Arthur Ransome (4.7, LG) 19,141

1968 Drummer Hoff, Barbara Emberley (4.7, LG) 1,889 4.1

1967 Sam, Bangs & Moonshine, Evaline Ness (3.6, LG) 5,051

1966 Always Room for One More, Sorche Nic Leodhas (4.3, LG) 8,757

1965 May I Bring a Friend?, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (2.7, LG) 1,197

1964 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak (3.4, LG) 20

1963 The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats (2.5, LG) 62

1962 Once a Mouse..., Marcia Brown (3.2, LG) 1,716

1961 Inch by Inch, Leo Lionni (1.8, LG) (HB) 784

1960 Nine Days to Christmas, Marie Hall Ets (3.8, LG) 17,079

1959 Chanticleer and the Fox, Geoffrey Chaucer (4.6, LG) 12,334

1958 Time of Wonder, Robert McCloskey (5.1, LG) 12,674 3.5

1957 A Tree Is Nice, Janice May Udry (2.2, LG) 978

1956 Frog Went A-Courtin', John Langstaff (2.7, LG) 4,152

1955 Cinderella, Marcia Brown (5.1, LG) 6,435

1954 Madeline's Rescue, Ludwig Bemelmans (3.2, LG) 661

1953 The Biggest Bear, Lynd Ward (3.9, LG) 1,871

1952 Finders Keepers, William Lipkind (2.8, LG) 8,502

1951 The Egg Tree, Katherine Milhous (3.5, LG) 19,266

1950 Song of the Swallows, Leo Politi (4.6, LG) 12,206

1949 The Big Snow, Berta Hader (4.3, LG) 2,487

1948 White Snow Bright Snow, Alvin Tresselt (4.2, LG) 1,924 3.7

1947 The Little Island, Margaret Wise Brown (3.6, LG) 1,982

1946 The Rooster Crows, Maud and Miska Petersha No AR quiz

1945 Yonie Wondernose, Marguerite De Angeli (4.1, LG) (HB) 59,334

1944 Many Moons, James Thurber (4.5, LG) 6,006

1943 The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton (4.2, LG) 941

1942 Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey (4.1, LG) 577

1941 They Were Strong and Good, Robert Lawson (4.1, LG) 40,972


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Caldecott Medal (concluded)


2011–12 Rank,

Grades 1–5


Average

1940 Abraham Lincoln, Ingri D'Aulaire (5.2, LG) 30,532

1939 Andy and the Lion, James Daugherty (3.6, LG) (HB) 5,708

1938 Animals of the Bible, Dorothy P. Lathrop (6.6, MG) 83,257 4.4

Average ATOS Book Level: 3.8

* Interest levels: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.

(HB) indicates that an AR quiz was unavailable for the Caldecott Medal winner, so the most-read Caldecott Honor Book for that award year was included in the list in lieu of the Medal winner.

2011–12 Rank, Grades 1–5 shows each title’s overall ranking based on how frequently the book was read in grades 1–5 during the 2011–2012 school year. A H

denotes the most-read Caldecott Medal winner.

The 10-Year ATOS Book Level Average demonstrates how the level of text complexity has changed over time for the Caldecott Medal winners.

Newbery Medal Winners, 1922–2013

Newbery Medal


2011–12 Rank,

Grades 6–8


Average

2013 The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate (3.6, MG) 23,227

2012 Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos (5.7, MG) 2,135

2011 Moon over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool (5.3, MG) 1,309

2010 When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead (4.5, MG) 430

2009 The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (5.1, MG+) 387

2008 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, Laura Amy Schlitz (5.6, MG) 4,176

2007 The Higher Power of Lucky, Susan Patron (5.9, MG) 3,180

2006 Criss Cross, Lynne Rae Perkins (5.5, MG+) 1,897

2005 Kira-Kira, Cynthia Kadohata (4.7, MG) 796

2004 The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo (4.7, MG) 182

2003 Crispin: The Cross of Lead, Avi (5.0, MG) 228

2002 A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park (6.6, MG) 457 5.3

2001 A Year down Yonder, Richard Peck (4.5, MG) 417

2000 Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG) 43

1999 Holes, Louis Sachar (4.6, MG) 17

1998 Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse (5.3, MG) 95

1997 The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg (5.9, MG) 711

1996 The Midwife's Apprentice, Karen Cushman (6.0, MG) 1,031

1995 Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech (4.9, MG) 72

1994 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) 11

1993 Missing May, Cynthia Rylant (5.3, MG) 1,427

1992 Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4.4, MG) 160 5.2

1991 Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (4.7, MG) 41

H


33


Newbery Medal (continued)


2011–12 Rank,

Grades 6–8


Average

1990 Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (4.5, MG) 14

1989 Scorpions, Walter Dean Myers (3.7, UG) (HB) 745

1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography, Russell Freedman (7.7, MG) 6,804

1987 The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman (3.9, MG) 335

1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (3.4, MG) 588

1985 The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley (7.0, MG) 8,224

1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary (4.9, MG) 376

1983 Dicey's Song, Cynthia Voigt (5.0, MG) 3,158

1982 A Visit to William Blake's Inn, Nancy Willard (4.5, MG) 29,992 4.9

1981 Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson (5.7, MG) 1,804

1980 A Gathering of Days, Joan W. Blos (6.7, MG) 12,344

1979 The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin (5.3, MG) 65

1978 Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (4.6, MG) 47

1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG) 40

1976 The Grey King, Susan Cooper (6.2, MG) 8,488

1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton (4.4, MG) 15,301

1974 The Slave Dancer, Paula Fox (6.0, MG) 1,787

1973 Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George (5.8, MG) 538

1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH/The Secret of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien (5.1, MG) 287 5.6

1971 The Summer of the Swans, Betsy Byars (4.9, MG) 346

1970 Sounder, William H. Armstrong (5.3, MG) 164

1969 The High King, Lloyd Alexander (6.1, MG) 15,449

1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg (4.7, MG) 235

1967 Up a Road Slowly, Irene Hunt (6.6, MG) 12,699

1966 I, Juan de Pareja, Elizabeth Borton de Treviño (6.5, MG) 6,190

1965 Shadow of a Bull, Maia Wojciechowska (5.2, MG) 5,879

1964 It's Like This, Cat, Emily Cheney Neville (4.7, MG) 7,735

1963 A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (4.7, MG) 96

1962 The Bronze Bow, Elizabeth George Speare (5.0, MG) 1,197 5.4

1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (5.4, MG) 63

1960 Onion John, Joseph Krumgold (4.5, MG) 16,357

1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare (5.7, MG) 217

1958 Rifles for Watie, Harold Keith (6.1, MG) 2,225

1957 Miracles on Maple Hill, Virginia Sorensen (4.9, MG) 9,773

1956 Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, Jean Lee Latham (4.1, MG) 13,750

1955 The Wheel on the School, Meindert De Jong (4.7, MG) 21,294

1954 And Now Miguel, Joseph Krumgold (4.8, MG) 18,084

1953 Secret of the Andes, Ann Nolan Clark (4.7, MG) 6,615

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Newbery Medal (concluded)


2011–12 Rank,

Grades 6–8


Average

1952 Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes (6.0, MG) 1,782 5.0

1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man, Elizabeth Yates (6.5, MG) 2,208

1950 The Door in the Wall, Marguerite De Angeli (6.2, MG) 2,237

1949 King of the Wind, Marguerite Henry (5.4, MG) 3,345

1948 The Twenty-One Balloons, William Péne du Bois (6.8, MG) 1,580

1947 Miss Hickory, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (5.9, MG) 21,416

1946 Strawberry Girl, Lois Lenski (4.8, MG) 13,582

1945 Rabbit Hill, Robert Lawson (6.4, MG) 4,010

1944 Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes (5.9, MG) 385

1943 Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Janet Gray (6.5, MG) 5,940

1942 The Matchlock Gun, Walter D. Edmonds (5.1, MG) 5,592 6.0

1941 Call It Courage, Armstrong Sperry (6.2, MG) 239

1940 Daniel Boone, James Daugherty (7.7, MG) 78,442

1939 Thimble Summer, Elizabeth Enright (5.7, MG) 20,124

1938 The White Stag, Kate Seredy (6.6, MG) 12,190

1937 Roller Skates, Ruth Sawyer (6.3, MG) 26,069

1936 Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink (6.0, MG) 2,280

1935 Dobry, Monica Shannon (5.6, MG) 103,615

1934 Invincible Louisa, Cornelia Meigs (8.0, UG) 59,347

1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, Elizabeth Foreman Lewis (6.4, MG) 27,790

1932 Waterless Mountain, Laura Adams Armer (5.6, MG) 85,925 6.4

1931 The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Elizabeth Coatsworth (5.9, MG) 4,911

1930 Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field (7.1, MG) 24,377

1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow, Eric Kelly (7.1, UG) 14,873

1928 Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, Dhan Gopal Mukerji (6.5, MG) 29,801

1927 Smoky the Cow Horse, Will James (6.5, MG) 11,365

1926 Shen of the Sea: Chinese Stories for Children, Arthur Bowie Chrisman (5.4, MG) 45,467

1925 Tales from Silver Lands, Charles J. Finger (6.2, MG) 74,656

1924 The Dark Frigate, Charles Boardman Hawes (6.7, UG) 46,149

1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, Hugh Lofting (5.7, MG) 8,111

1922 The Story of Mankind (Updated), Hendrik Willem Van Loon (9.9, UG) 95,226 6.7



(HB) indicates that an AR quiz was unavailable for the Newbery Medal winner, so the most-read Newbery Honor Book for that award year was included in the list in lieu of the Medal winner.

2011–12 Rank, Grades 6–8 shows each title’s overall ranking based on how frequently the book was read in grades 6–8 during the 2011–2012 school year. A H denotes the most-read Newbery Medal winner.

The 10-Year ATOS Book Level Average demonstrates how the level of text complexity has changed over time for the Newbery Medal winners.


3535

Following the publication of previous What Kids Are Reading reports, educators and reading researchers Reading reports, educators and reading researchers Readinghave asked, “Are the books on these lists chosen by students to read, or assigned to them?” This is a great question, and an especially relevant one given that the Common Core State Standards have brought new attention to the material students read. Of particular interest are the challenges that high school educators are facing in ensuring that the texts assigned to students are sufficiently challenging and complex, and that students are exposed to enough informational text.2

Until now, we simply did not know very much about assigned texts in our database. Anecdotally, we knew that the book reading we were capturing included both assigned and self-selected texts, but we lacked data regarding which books were assigned most often.

To shed light on this issue, we conducted a survey of educators to understand which books they most commonly assign. Anticipating the next question—how has this changed over the years?—we also conducted a literature review of similar studies over the past century. This section presents the results of both our survey and the literature review. Each list of books includes an average ATOS book level to show how the level of text complexity has changed over time for assigned reading in high school and an overall ranking for each title within grades 9–12, based on how frequently these titles were read during the 2011–2012 school year. Together, this information presents a fascinating overview of the books that high school students have been assigned to read over time, and how these reading requirements have evolved.

The dataThe Renaissance Learning survey was conducted in the fall of 2012. A total of 685 teachers at elementary (76), middle (384), and high school (225) levels participated

Section III: High School Required Reading, Past to Present

2 Gewertz, C. (2012, August 15). New research expands thinking on text complexity. Education Week. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2012/08/new_research_expands_thinking_.html

Gewertz, C. (2012, March 13). Districts gear up for shift to informational texts. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/14/24informational_ep.h31.html

“I’m reading Earth. I chose this book because it was about Earth, and I wanted to see how much I really know about Earth.”

-Fifth-grade girl

“I’m reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because the Goblet of Fire because the Goblet of Fireits words are so powerful and make me feel like I am in the book.”

-Fourth-grade girl

“I’m reading Front Page Face-Off. I chose to read the Face-Off. I chose to read the Face-Offbook because it was about journalism and when I grow up I want to become a news anchor.”

-Sixth-grade girl

“I’m reading I Survived: The Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941. It is a good story and I like historical fiction.”

-Sixth-grade boy

36

in the online survey, but the results presented here reflect only the 225 high school respondents to be consistent with the surveys included in the literature review, all of which were high school focused. The 225 respondents were from 216 high schools in 45 states. High school teachers were presented with a list of the 75 books most commonly read in grades 9–12 during the 2011–2012 school year and were asked to indicate which of those books they assigned to students during that school year. They were also provided the opportunity to write in additional assigned titles. The results of the Renaissance Learning Survey of Assigned Books (2012) are presented on p. 46.

The literature review included the following prior surveys of assigned texts in high school:

Tanner (1907) (see p. 40) reported the results of a survey that identified the most commonly assigned texts in 67 high schools serving grades 9–12 in the Midwest.3 Few details about the survey sample or methodology were provided.

Hudelson (1923) (see p. 41) conducted a survey to identify texts that educators indicated were required or recommended in 38 state high school English courses.4 Details about the survey sample and methodology were not provided.

Anderson (1964) (see p. 42) administered a questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 222 public high schools in the U.S.5 The questionnaire sought information about the literature being taught to all students in English classes.

Applebee (1989) (see p. 44) followed Anderson’s (1964) methods, randomly selecting schools and receiving responses from 322 public high schools.6 The survey was sent to department heads and requested they identify all works of literature that all students were required to study in any English course.

Stotsky, Traffas, and Woodworth (2010) (see p. 45) surveyed a nationally representative sample of 406 teachers of English in U.S. public schools, focusing on grades 9, 10, and 11.7

CaveatsPlease note: Caution should be exercised in making inferences about the changing nature of assigned texts over time, because for the most part, the surveys involved different methodologies, instruments, and target populations. Only Applebee (1989) sought to replicate Anderson’s (1964) methods. Furthermore, only the Anderson (1964), Applebee (1989), and Stotsky et al. (2010) studies attempted to create representative samples of U.S. high schools by creating stratified random samples. The other studies used samples of convenience, and two of those (Tanner, 1907 and Hudelson, 1923) were relatively small. Although the 2012 Renaissance Learning survey sample is fairly sizable and broad in geographic terms, it is a convenience sample of Accelerated Reader users and may not be representative. If all of the instruments and methods had remained consistent over the years, the results presented here may have been different.

ObservationsAs one would expect, the results of the surveys indicate lots of change. Authors and titles that were prevalent 100 years ago make way for newer classics. John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, and Washington Irving are

3 Tanner, G. W. (1907). Report of the committee appointed by the English Conference to inquire into the teaching of English in the high schools of the middle west. The School Review, 15(1), 32–45.

4 Hudelson, E. (1923). Our courses of study in literature. The English Journal, 12(7), 481–487.

5 Anderson, S. (1964). Between the Grimms and “The Group”: Literature in American high schools. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

6 Applebee, A. N. (1989). A study of book-length works taught in high school English courses. Report 1.2. New York: Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature.

7 Stotsky, S., Traffas, J., & Woodworth, J. (2010). Forum 4: Literary study in grades 9, 10, and 11: A national survey. Boston, MA: Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. Available online from http://www.alscw.org/publications/forum/forum_4.pdf

37

replaced by John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But what is also interesting are the authors and titles with staying power.

Among the authors most commonly assigned to high school students over the past 100+ years, the only constants are William Shakespeare and Nathanial Hawthorne. Titles such as Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet have remained popular choices in particular. Charles Dickens made every top 40 list except in 2012, when A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol both narrowly missed the cut, coming in at 42 and 48, respectively.

Educators, policy makers, and researchers will no doubt be interested in the text complexity of assigned texts, and how it has changed over the years. As mentioned, the tables in this section present average ATOS book levels for each top 40 required reading list. We rely on ATOS as a proxy for text complexity. ATOS is a free and widely used measure, and it takes into consideration word (vocabulary difficulty and word length) and sentence (length) features in estimating the difficulty of text. Although ATOS has been evaluated and found to be a reliable and valid quantitative indicator of text complexity,8 keep in mind that Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) defines text complexity as being shaped by qualitative and reader-task considerations (requiring human judgment)9 in addition to quantitative information.10

On the ATOS grade-level scale, the average complexity of the texts reported in Tanner (1907) was 9.0, followed by Hudelson (1923) with 9.1. From there, it was lower in every subsequent survey—8.2 in Anderson’s 1964 survey, 7.2 in Applebee’s 1989 survey, 6.7 in the Stotsky et al. (2010) survey, and 6.2 in our 2012 survey.11

This apparent decline in the complexity of reading material assigned to high school students is very much in line with findings from a number of other studies. CCSS Appendix A cites several studies documenting similar declines in text difficulty, as well as highlighting a sizable gap between the difficulty of the texts currently read by high school students and what they are expected to read in college and career. A recent article by Heibert and Mesmer (2013)12 more thoroughly explores this topic, confirming declines in complexity over the past several decades, but pointing out that declines are concentrated in the texts read in the upper grades. There is not compelling evidence that this trend toward lower text complexity has been occurring in the primary grades.

8 Nelson, J., Perfetti, C., Liben, D., & Liben, M. (2011). Measures of text difficulty: Testing their predictive value for grade levels and student performance. Technical Report to the Gates Foundation (also to be submitted for publication). Available online from http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2012/Measures%20ofText%20Difficulty_final.2012.pdf

9 Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Appendix A: Research supporting the key elements of the standards, Glossary of terms. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. Retrieved from www.corestandards.org.

10 In Accelerated Reader, each book is also assigned an interest level (IL) code, based on publisher recommendations, which provides a qualitative measure of text complexity that refers to the sophistication and maturity level of a book’s content, ideas, and themes: LG for lower grades (K–3), MG for middle grades (4–8), MG+ for middle grades plus (6 and up, for more mature middle-grade readers), and UG for upper grades (9–12). Interest level and ATOS book level are intended to work together to inform book selection.

11 Within the lists, ATOS book levels for texts without AR quizzes available were determined by running the full text through Renaissance Learning’s ATOS Analyzer (http://www.renlearn.com/textcomplexity/tools.aspx).

12 Hiebert, E. H., & Mesmer, H. A. E. (2013). Upping the ante of text complexity in the Common Core State Standards: Examining its potential impact on young readers. Educational Researcher, 42, 1.

Educators, policy makers, and researchers will no doubt be interested in the text complexity of assigned texts, and how it has changed over the years.

38

ConclusionWhile the decline over time in the complexity of required texts for high school students may be a concern, a few things are worth noting that may temper that concern. One, although our analysis is restricted to the period of 1907 to 2012, there is evidence that writing has become less complex over the last several hundred years. Complexity is impacted in part by average sentence length; books with longer sentences tend to be more difficult to comprehend than books with shorter sentences. DuBay (2006) cites research demonstrating that average sentence length in written texts has steadily decreased from about 50 words in the 1500s to about 20 words in the early 2000s.13 He describes this trend as a “streamlining of language.”

Two, keep in mind that most texts adults read voluntarily are also not at the level of the material provided in college. For example, the difficulty level of most of the books in New York Times fiction best-seller lists spanning 2011 and 2012 tend to have ATOS book levels between 5.0 to 8.0. According to both Stotsky et al. (2010) and our 2012 study, this is the range of many of the books assigned to high school students in recent years.

Finally, it is worth noting that just because the books students are being assigned to read are less complex than in prior years, this does not necessarily mean that they cannot read or comprehend books at higher levels, nor can we assume that assigning more complex texts would necessarily lead to improvements in achievement. Related, a book’s difficulty level is not an indication of quality. Our point in presenting this overview is not to imply that the books students are assigned today are less valuable than those assigned decades ago. That being said, there exists a legitimate debate among educators regarding whether or not students are being adequately prepared for the challenges of college and career as defined by the Common Core and other state standards.

Why do kids read the books they read? What influences students’ reading choices? There is no doubt that many factors come into play each time a student pulls a book from a library shelf or downloads a new title on an e-reader. To explore in more depth what may be motivating students to choose one book over another, Renaissance Learning sought feedback about student book selection from authors, educators, and students. In this section, guest essayist Christy Levings, Executive Committee Member of the National Education Association, provides commentary (p. 39).

13 DuBay, W. H. (Ed.) (2006). The classic readability studies. Costa Mesa, CA: Impact Information.

Just because the books students are being assigned to read are less complex than in prior years, this does not necessarily mean that they cannot read or comprehend books at higher levels.

39


By Christy Levings

After nearly 40 years of teaching students reading skills, as well as reading out loud to hundreds of students, I have a lot of ideas about what young people like to read and what excites them about books and stories. However, it seemed important to ask today’s young readers to share their thinking on what they like to read. So, on a cold and windy January day, I asked almost 100 elementary students to share their thoughts on the subject.

It would be an understatement to say they had very definite ideas on what they like to read and how they judged books. I have pages of notes from their thoughts about what grabs their interest and what keeps them coming back for more written words. Some talked about the expected things such as great covers, colorful pictures, well-done illustrations, and a well-written summary inside the jacket, but many shared very personal ideas about books. These children shared that books were learning tools about the world around them, and many love to read nonfiction. Books showed them ways to resolve problems in the safety of simply observing the characters’ conflicts and emotions. They loved the almost magical escape from the here and now, or when an author gives a funny view of the real and normal lives we all live. I was impressed by the number of kids who preferred certain authors and could name them. They also told of actively looking for other books by those same authors. This was reflected in their enjoyment in book series, so they could develop a longer relationship with the characters and follow their adventures.

Not unlike adults, they used recommendations from friends and classmates as a major source of finding new things to read. I expected many to discuss the change to electronic readers as influencing their choices; and while some did, they also liked to browse the library and book stores to see what they might choose to read. Just like adult readers, they loved a book that they just could not put down and that strongly connected with their emotions. They were equal in their enjoyment of a scary story, a funny tale, or one that took them far away from the real world. Often mentioned were books about a boy who goes to school in his underpants, or stories where students can fly on a broom to class. Those books and stories ranked high because they provided both an escape and a chance to laugh and imagine what might be or could be, at least in our imaginations.

Books and kids combine to be a marvelous mix of literature, emotion, and imagination. I enjoy reading aloud to groups of students and catching them all in a web of words that spin an adventurous tale. The power of the story can leave them terrified for the accused girl at the witch trials in Salem, entertain them with the modern day antics of the dog next door, or have them hoping that Sam might hurry up and just try the green eggs and ham.

As adults, we all remember that one special bedtime story that took our imagination for a fantasy ride. Children today are seeking that same adventure and are looking for the chance to interact with all types of books and genres of literature. It is an enormous responsibility of all of the adults in a child’s life to help them read and explore books daily.

Christy Levings, an elementary school teacher from rural Osawatomie, Kansas, was elected to the National Education Association’s (NEA) Executive Committee in July 2010 for a second 3-year term. With more than three decades of education experience, Levings has been a champion for public education and school employees at the state and local levels. An elementary school teacher for 36 years, Levings currently provides instructional resource support and works with the formalized collegial mentoring program in the Olathe School District. Before being elected to the NEA Executive Committee, she served as president of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) for 5 years and vice president for 4 years.

40

Tanner (1907)

Study Rank Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)* 2011–12 Rank,

Grades 9–12

1 Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (10.8, UG) 19

2 Macbeth, William Shakespeare (10.9, UG) 36

3 Silas Marner, George Eliot (9.7, UG) 900

4 Milton's Minor Poems, John Milton (8.9) -

5 The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare (9.4, UG) 4,653

6 Burke's Conciliation, Edmund Burke (10.2) -

7 The Vision of Sir Launfal, James Russell Lowell (7.1) -

8 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (5.5) -

9 Essay on Addison, Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay (9.9) -

10 Ivanhoe, Walter Scott (12.9, UG) 9,743

11 Days with Sir Roger De Coverley, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (7.8) -

12 Idylls of the King, Lord Alfred Tennyson (7.7) -

13 The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott (7.8) -

14 Milton, Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay (9.9) -

15 Chaucer's Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer (5.2) -

16 The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., Washington Irving (10.3) -

17 Carlyle's Burns (9.3) -

18 Essay on Johnson, Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay (8.2) -

19 The Princess, Alfred Tennyson (7.8) -

20 Hamlet, William Shakespeare (10.5, UG) 153

21 Oliver Goldsmith, A Biography, Washington Irving (9.7) -

22 As You Like It, William Shakespeare (9.2, UG) 15,158

23 Poe–Selections Could not determine text to analyze.

24 The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith (8.6) -

25 Burns' Poems, Robert Burns (6.0) -

26 Twice Told Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne (9.5) -

27 The House of the Seven Gables (Unabridged), Nathaniel Hawthorne (11.0, UG) 4,702

28 Wordsworth–Selections Could not determine text to analyze.

29 The Last of the Mohicans (Unabridged), James Fenimore Cooper (12.0, UG) 5,604

30 Sohrab and Rustum, Matthew Arnold (6.7) -

31 The Deserted Village, Oliver Goldsmith (8.5) -

32 Tales of the White Hills, Nathaniel Hawthorne (8.6) -

33 Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl, John Greenleaf Whittier (7.6) -

34 Paradise Lost, I-II, John Milton (9.8) -

35 Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, Walter Scott (8.7) -

Top 40 Books Required in High School, 1907–2012


41


Tanner (1907) (continued)


Grades 9–12

36 Pope's Homer's Iliad, Alexander Pope (9.8) -

37 Tales of a Wayside Inn, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (7.8) -

38 A Tale of Two Cities (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (9.7, UG) 557

39 Browning–Selections Could not determine text to analyze.

40 King Lear, William Shakespeare (8.8, UG) 2,710


* Interest levels are provided for books with AR quizzes: LG = lower grades (K–3), MG = middle grades (4–8), MG+ = middle grades plus (6 and up), and UG = upper grades (9–12). ATOS book level and interest level inform book selection.

2011–12 Rank, Grades 9–12 shows each title’s overall ranking based on how frequently the book was read in grades 9–12 during the 2011–2012 school year.

Dash (–) indicates an AR quiz is not available for this title.

Hudelson (1923)


Grades 9–12

1 The Rivals, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (4.0) -


3 Sohrab and Rustum, Matthew Arnold (6.7) -




7 The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott (7.8) -

8 The Last of the Mohicans (Unabridged), James Fenimore Cooper (12.0, UG) 5,604


10 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (5.5) -

11 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin (11.8, UG) 30,553


13 Old Testament Narratives, ad lib Could not determine text to analyze.

14 The Talisman, Walter Scott (10.4) -


16 Milton's Minor Poems, John Milton (8.9) -

17 Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana (7.7, UG) 53,560

18 David Copperfield (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (9.5, UG) 11,244


20 Sir Roger de Coverley Papers (8.6) -

21 The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman (8.5, UG) AR quiz not taken during 2011–2012 school year.

22 Lorna Doone, R.D. Blackmore (9.2, UG) 57,468

42

Anderson (1964)


Grades 9–12




4 Our Town, Thornton Wilder (3.9, UG) 294

5 Great Expectations (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (9.2, UG) 293

6 The Scarlet Letter (Unabridged), Nathaniel Hawthorne (11.7, UG) 56



9 The Red Badge of Courage (Unabridged), Stephen Crane (8.0, UG) 582

10 The Odyssey, Homer (10.3, UG) 357

Hudelson (1923) (continued)


Grades 9–12

23 A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare (10.9, UG) 366


25 Oliver Twist (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (11.3, UG) 1,601

26 Pride and Prejudice (Unabridged), Jane Austen (12.0, UG) 181


28 The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot (9.9, UG) 31,935

29 The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith (8.6) -

30 The Blue Bird, Maurice Maeterlinck (4.1) -

31 The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., William Makepeace Thackeray (8.3) -

32 Kidnapped (Unabridged), Robert Louis Stevenson (7.6, UG) 4,329

33 The Piper Could not determine text to analyze.

34 Travels with a Donkey in Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (7.7) -


36 The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (8.2) -

37 Browning's Shorter Poems, Robert Browning (7.5) -

38 Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling (8.0, UG) 9,092

39 The Deserted Village, Oliver Goldsmith (8.5) -

40 Essay on Burns, Carlyle (9.3) -






43

Anderson (1964) (continued)


Grades 9–12

11 Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw (7.0, UG) 525


13 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Unabridged), Mark Twain (6.6, MG) 62



16 Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, Herman Melville (10.3, UG) 4,804

17 The Pearl, John Steinbeck (7.1, UG) 49

18 The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy (10.2, UG) 9,871

19 David Copperfield (Unabridged), Charles Dickens (9.5, UG) 11,244

20 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder (7.1, UG) 8,804

21 The King and I, Rodgers & Hammerstein (4.0) -

22 Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (8.6, UG) 9

23 Paradise Lost, John Miltron (9.8) -

24 Pride and Prejudice (Unabridged), Jane Austen (12.0, UG) 181

25 Walden, Henry David Thoreau (8.7, UG) 12,565

26 The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway (5.1, UG) 87

27 She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith (3.5) -

28 The Yearling, Marjorie Rawlings (5.0, UG) 3,649


30 Jane Eyre (Unabridged), Charlotte Brontë (7.9, UG) 395

31 Treasure Island (Unabridged), Robert Louis Stevenson (8.3, MG) 499

32 The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Rudolf Besier (4.2) -

33 Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand (7.6, UG) 1,051

34 To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG) 5


36 Ethan Frome (Unabridged), Edith Wharton (7.6, UG) 440


38 Oedipus the King, Sophocles (5.6, UG) 320

39 Secret Sharer, Joseph Conrad (6.2) -

40 Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Robert E. Sherwood (4.5) -






44

Applebee (1989)


Grades 9–12







7 Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (4.5, UG) 4


9 Lord of the Flies, William Golding (5.0, UG) 15

10 The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.3, UG) 14


12 A Separate Peace, John Knowles (6.9, UG) 60


14 The Crucible, Arthur Miller (4.9, UG) 16

15 Animal Farm, George Orwell (7.3, UG) 7





20 Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller (6.2, UG) 223

21 1984, George Orwell (8.9, UG) 139

22 Antigone, Sophocles (5.2, UG) 202

23 The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (4.9, UG) 408


25 The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (4.7, UG) 92

26 The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams (5.3, UG) 429

27 Wuthering Heights (Unabridged), Emily Brontë (11.3, UG) 289

28 The Miracle Worker, William Gibson (5.2, UG) 245


30 Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw (7.0, UG) 525

31 Othello, William Shakespeare (8.4, UG) 321

32 The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank (6.5, MG+) 963

33 Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (7.5, UG) 242

34 Ethan Frome (Unabridged), Edith Wharton (7.6, UG) 440

35 The Pigman, Paul Zindel (5.5, UG) 163

36 The Call of the Wild, Jack London (8.0, MG) 156

37 Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (5.2, UG) 45


45

Applebee (1989) (continued)


Grades 9–12

38 Jane Eyre (Unabridged), Charlotte Brontë (7.9, UG) 395

39 All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque (6.0, UG) 769

40 A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry (5.5, UG) 50




Stotsky, Traffas, and Woodworth (2010)


Grades 9–12






6 Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) 6









15 Antigone, Sophocles (5.2, UG) 202

16 The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (4.7, UG) 92




20 Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (4.5, UG) 22


22 Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller (6.2, UG) 223


24 The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) 10

25 Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (6.2, UG) 116


46

Stotsky, Traffas, and Woodworth (2010) (continued)


Grades 9–12


27 The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (4.9, UG) 408

28 Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (5.6, UG) 164

29 Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose Could not determine text to analyze.






35 The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams (5.3, UG) 429

36 Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers (4.2, UG) 191

37 A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams (5.7, UG) 1,760

38 The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (4.5, UG) 132

39 The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (5.8, UG) 241

40 Anthem, Ayn Rand (6.1, UG) 40




Renaissance Learning Survey of Assigned Books (2012)


Grades 9–12



3 Night, Elie Wiesel (4.8, UG) 6





8 The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell (5.3, UG) 17

9 The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant (5.5, MG) 63


11 The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG) 39



47

Renaissance Learning Survey of Assigned Books (2012) (continued)


Grades 9–12






18 Frankenstein (Unabridged), Mary Shelley (12.4, UG) 25

19 The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (4.7, UG) 10


21 The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) 1

22 Anthem, Ayn Rand (6.1, UG) 40

23 The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (5.2, UG) 68


25 A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer (5.8, UG) 8

26 The Giver, Lois Lowry (5.7, MG) 20

27 Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (4.5, UG) 22

28 Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper (4.3, UG) 29

29 Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) 2

30 Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (5.3, MG+) 3

31 Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (3.9, MG+) 21

32 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4.9, UG) 11


34 The Maze Runner, James Dashner (5.3, UG) 48

35 Forged by Fire, Sharon M. Draper (4.7, MG) 44

36 The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family, Dave Pelzer (5.1, UG) 57

37 The Help, Kathryn Stockett (4.4, UG) 24

38 The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks (5.5, UG) 30

39 Crank, Ellen Hopkins (4.3, UG) 18

40 The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (4.7, MG) 13





4949

With the creation and widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the notion of text complexity—the level of challenge presented by a given text—has been brought to the forefront. According to Appendix A of the CCSS, “all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found in college and careers” (p. 2).14

To assist educators with reaching these goals, the CCSS includes a list of text exemplars in Appendix B,15

which illustrate the CCSS’s call for “complexity, quality, and range of reading appropriate for various grade levels” in the English Language Arts standards (p. 8).16

Several genres are represented in the text exemplars, but for the purpose of relevancy to the What Kids Are Reading report, which focuses on book reading, we Reading report, which focuses on book reading, we Readingchose to highlight Informational Texts and Stories.

The lists that begin on p. 52 present the Common Core State Standards Exemplars—Informational Text and Stories from Appendix B by CCSS grade band, along with the percent of students reading each book within its assigned band and the individual grade with the highest percentage of students reading the book for the 2011–2012 school year.17 For comparison to last year’s findings, the same information is provided for the 2010–2011 school year.

Section IV: Common Core State Standards Exemplars


15 Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Appendix B: Text exemplars and sample performance tasks. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, Council of Chief State School Officers. Retrieved from www.corestandards.org.

16 Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. Retrieved from www.corestandards.org.

17 Determined using data from the Accelerated Reader Real Time database, which includes book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books during the 2011–2012 school year.

“I’m reading Killing Lincoln. I did a report about him and thought his life was interesting.”

-Eighth-grade boy

“I’m reading Artemis Fowlbecause the librarian suggested it to me.”

-Third-grade girl

“I’m reading The Fox Steals Home because I like to read Home because I like to read Homesports books.”

-Fifth-grade boy

“I’m reading The Desperate Mission because it’s a Star Mission because it’s a Star MissionWars book.”

-Third-grade boy

“I’m reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I heard it was good, and I thought the concept seemed interesting.”

-Eighth-grade girl

50

Showing both metrics—percent of students reading each book within its CCSS band versus the grade where the book is most frequently read—highlights both sides of the coin: cases in which the exemplars are (1) widely read and most popular within their target grade bands (for example, Are You My Mother?, an exemplar story for the K–1 grade band, read by more than 10% of students in kindergarten and grade 1 and read most often in grade 1), and (2) not widely read or read much later than is suggested by the CCSS (for example, Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist, an exemplar informational text for the 6–8 grade band, read by less than one percent of students in grades 6–8 and read most often in grade 10).

Why do kids read the books they read? What influences students’ reading choices? There is no doubt that many factors come into play each time a student pulls a book from a library shelf or downloads a new title on an e-reader. To explore in more depth what may be motivating students to choose one book over another, Renaissance Learning sought feedback about student book selection from authors, educators, and students. In this section, guest essayist Avi, author of Nothing But the Truth, provides commentary (p. 51).

5151

Avi’s first book, Things That Sometimes Happen, was published in 1970. His 2013 book (his 73rd) is Sophia’s War. His 2003 Newbery Medal was for Crispin: The Cross of Lead. He has two Newbery Honors, two Horn Book Awards, and an O’Dell Award, plus many children’s choice awards. He travels often to talk in schools. Among his popular books are The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing But the Truth, The Poppy Books, Seer of Shadows, and The Fighting Ground. Avi’s ideas about writing and reading are posted twice weekly on his website: www.Avi-writer.com


By Avi

I’m often asked what makes books for young people different than adult literature. I believe it has to do with the range of experience and knowledge young people bring to a text. Today it can be sorely limited. One can write about anything for young people, but it must be done so that context and meaning is rooted in narrative experience. It’s not enough for today’s writers to say, “S got on a locomotive.” The writer must allow S to experience what a locomotive is to a reader who has never seen one before. What is wanted is not mere facts, but emotional engagement.

It’s also vital to offer young people books that engage them in terms of who they are now, rather than what we adults were like when children. Whatever the value of “classics,” (and I read them all the time) if it is beyond the emotional and experiential scope of a young person, the effect is bound to be negative. I recall how sad I was when one of my boys—a ninth grader—was given Jane Austen to read, one of my favorite writers. My boy could not grasp the context, the language, or the subtly of the book. “A stupid girls’ book,” he exclaimed, and it will be years before he discovers what he missed.

My own children (all six of them) are adults now, but I visit schools often, both in person and via Skype. Moreover, I get a lot of letters from kids. My strong impression is that kids today are attracted to stories which are suspenseful, unpredictable, and if you can tie that in with humor, so much the better. They also tell me they like lots of detail, as if they wish to convert the text into a visual experience. One of their highest compliments is, “it would make a good movie,” by which I understand them to mean they can see the story.

It’s also important to understand that the structure of narration changes, and evolves. Young readers today—because of TV, movies, and not least, video games—want a story that engages them very quickly. I recall a letter from a reader who wrote: “Your The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was boring at first, but by page The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was boring at first, but by page The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyletwo it got real good.”

I believe there are two powerful ways to motivate young people. The first is that they see their own parents, guardians, and siblings reading. These days, particularly for boys, to see males reading is crucial.

The second most powerful motivator is to read to young people. Yes, sharing picture books with the very young is wonderful, but don’t stop there. A shared chapter book is a very powerful family experience, and should be extended for as long as possible into the young person’s life. I urge teachers (and parents) to take voice lessons—yes, voice lessons—so that they might read on a daily basis to their students in a powerful, emotional, articulate, and engaging fashion.

52

Common Core State Standards: K–1 Band

2011–12 School Year 2010–11 School Year

Category Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*Percent Read in Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read in Band

Most Popular Grade

Informational Texts

My Five Senses, Aliki (2.0, LG) 0.99 2 0.66 2

Starfish, Edith Thacher Hurd (2.3, LG) 0.23 2 0.06 2

A Tree Is a Plant, Clyde Robert Bulla (2.3, LG) 0.12 2 0.06 2

A Weed Is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver, Aliki (4.3, LG) 1.44 2 0.01 2

Stories

Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1.5, LG) 16.78 1 14.28 1

Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman (1.6, LG) 10.37 1 9.13 1

Hi, Fly Guy!, Tedd Arnold (1.5, LG) 6.14 1 4.38 1

Frog and Toad Together, Arnold Lobel (2.9, LG) 4.14 2 2.22 2

Put Me in the Zoo, Robert Lopshire (1.4, LG) 2.50 1 1.63 1

Little Bear, Else Holmelund Minarik (2.4, LG) 1.98 2 1.43 2

Owl at Home, Arnold Lobel (2.7, LG) 1.58 2 0.71 2


Percent Read in Band indicates the percent of students in grades K–1 who read each book during either the 2011–2012 or 2010–2011 school years.

Most Popular Grade shows the grade in which the book was read by the highest percentage of students during either the 2011–12 or 2010–2011 school years.

Common Core State Standards Exemplars—Informational Texts and Stories


53


Common Core State Standards: 2–3 Band


Category Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Informational Texts

Bat Loves the Night, Nicola Davies (3.4, LG) 1.27 3 0.69 3

From Seed to Plant, Gail Gibbons (3.4, LG) 0.72 2 0.49 2

Bats: Creatures of the Night, Joyce Milton (2.9, LG) 0.39 2 0.32 2

So You Want to Be President?, Judith St. George (4.8, MG) 1.33 4 0.25 4

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington, Frances E. Ruffin (3.3, LG) 0.17 3 0.14 3

A Medieval Feast, Aliki (4.6, LG) 0.07 4 0.03 4

Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World, Selby B. Beeler (4.2, LG) 0.05 3 0.03 3

Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!, Kathleen V. Kudlinski (5.0, LG) 0.06 5 0.02 5

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, Brian Floca (4.8, LG) 0.10 4 0.02 4

Where Do Polar Bears Live?, Sarah L. Thomson (4.0, LG) 0.01 4 0.01 3

Art Around the World, Heather Leonard (3.8, LG) 0.01 3 0.01 3

Stories

Henry and Mudge: The First Book of Their Adventures, Cynthia Rylant (2.7, LG) 5.96 2 4.15 2

Tops & Bottoms, Janet Stevens (3.2, LG) 4.64 3 2.61 3

Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (3.4, MG) 5.04 4 1.75 4

The Stories Julian Tells, Ann Cameron (3.4, LG) 0.77 3 0.50 3

My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (5.6, LG) 0.72 3 0.49 3

The Treasure, Uri Shulevitz (3.0, LG) 0.57 3 0.47 3

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, Erica Silverman (2.3, LG) 0.60 2 0.41 2

The Fire Cat, Esther Averill (2.9, LG) 0.67 2 0.40 2

Amos & Boris, William Steig (4.7, LG) 0.46 3 0.35 3

Poppleton in Winter, Cynthia Rylant (2.5, LG) 0.54 2 0.35 2

The Raft, Jim LaMarche (4.1, LG) 1.44 4 0.10 4

The One-Eyed Giant, Mary Pope Osborne (4.8, MG) 0.22 4 0.08 5

The Lighthouse Family: The Storm, Cynthia Rylant (4.4, LG) 0.05 3 0.02 3


Percent Read in Band indicates the percent of students in grades 2–3 who read each book during either the 2011–2012 or 2010–2011 school years.


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Category Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Informational Texts

Volcanoes, Seymour Simon (5.1, MG) 0.61 5 0.37 5

Horses, Seymour Simon (5.2, LG) 0.04 5 0.03 5

Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms, Patricia Lauber (6.0, MG) 0.03 5 0.02 5

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, Kadir Nelson (5.9, MG) 0.02 5 0.01 5

Toys! Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions, Don L. Wulffson (6.8, MG) 0.01 5 0.01 5

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, Sy Montgomery (5.3, MG)

0.01 5 < 0.01 5

My Librarian Is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World, Margriet Ruurs (6.3, MG) 0.01 4 < 0.01 6

About Time: A First Look at Time and Clocks, Bruce Koscielniak (6.7, LG) < 0.01 5 < 0.01 5

England: The Land, Erinn Banting (7.5, MG) < 0.01 7 < 0.01 6

The Kid's Guide to Money: Earning It, Saving It, Spending It, Growing It, Sharing It, Steve Otfinoski (7.2, MG)

< 0.01 6 - 7

Stories

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt (5.0, MG) 5.68 6 2.19 6

Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (5.0, MG) 3.14 5 1.95 5

The Black Stallion, Walter Farley (5.2, MG) 0.59 4 0.53 4

The Secret Garden (Unabridged), Frances Hodgson Burnett (6.3, MG) 0.59 5 0.50 5

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin (5.5, MG) 1.01 5 0.18 5

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Unabridged), Lewis Carroll (7.4, MG) 0.25 6 0.15 6

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (5.0, MG) 0.10 5 0.08 12

The Birchbark House, Louise Erdrich (6.1, MG) 0.11 5 0.06 5

M.C. Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton (4.4, MG) 0.01 6 0.01 6




Dash (–) means book was not read in grades 4 and 5.


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Category Title, Author (ATOS Book Level, Interest Level)*

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Informational Texts: English Language Arts

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Frederick Douglass (7.9, UG) 0.60 11 0.06 11

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Ann Petry (6.6, MG) 0.07 8 0.05 8

Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck (6.7, UG) 0.02 11 < 0.01 12

Informational Texts: History/Social Studies

The Great Fire, Jim Murphy (7.6, UG) 0.10 8 0.06 7

A Night to Remember, Walter Lord (7.0, UG) 0.05 7 0.04 10

Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Russell Freedman (7.7, MG) 0.03 8 0.01 6

Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist, Jan Greenberg (7.6, MG) < 0.01 10 < 0.01 9

A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art, Philip Isaacson (6.7, UG) < 0.01 12 < 0.01 9

This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Partridge (7.0, UG)

< 0.01 12 < 0.01 12

Informational Texts: Science,

Mathematics, and Technology

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure, Hans Magnus Enzensberger (4.4, MG) 0.05 6 0.01 7

Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, David Macaulay (7.3, MG) 0.01 7 < 0.01 7

Geeks: How Two Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho, Jon Katz (8.3, UG) 0.01 12 < 0.01 9

Stories

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (5.7, MG) 2.21 7 1.80 7

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (4.7, MG) 1.33 6 1.01 6

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Unabridged), Mark Twain (8.1, MG) 1.05 8 0.28 8

Dragonwings, Laurence Yep (5.3, MG+) 0.26 7 0.15 7

Little Women (Book I and II) (Unabridged), Louisa May Alcott (7.9, MG) 0.12 11 0.08 8

The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper (6.2, MG) 0.09 8 0.07 8

The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks, Katherine Paterson (5.6, LG) 0.10 5 0.04 5

Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, Rosemary Sutcliff (6.8, MG) 0.06 6 0.02 6

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales, Virginia Hamilton (4.3, MG) 0.01 6 < 0.01 5





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Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (6.7, UG) 0.14 11 0.14 10

I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King Jr. (7.2, MG) 0.05 7 0.06 10

The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln (4.3, MG) 0.04 5 0.02 8


Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Dee Brown (7.9, UG)

0.01 12 < 0.01 12

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491, Charles C. Mann (8.1, MG) 0.01 8 < 0.01 7

Black, Blue & Gray: African Americans in the Civil War, Jim Haskins (10.0, UG) < 0.01 10 - 8

The Longitude Prize, Joan Dash (8.6, UG) < 0.01 9 - 8

Informational Texts: Science,

Mathematics, and Technology

The Hot Zone, Richard Preston (7.3, UG) 0.17 9 0.26 9

The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, Phillip Hoose (7.9, UG) < 0.01 8 < 0.01 8

Stories

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (5.6, UG) 5.14 9 4.92 9

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (5.2, UG) 1.09 10 0.99 10

The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry (6.2, UG) 1.35 9 0.89 9

The Odyssey, Homer (10.3, UG) 0.41 9 0.45 9

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (6.2, UG) 1.00 10 0.35 12

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (5.1, UG) 0.56 8 0.33 10

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka (10.5, UG) 0.85 12 0.18 12

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (5.7, UG) 0.22 12 0.11 10

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (4.9, UG) 0.61 11 0.09 11

The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara (4.7, UG) 0.05 11 0.03 9

In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez (5.8, UG) 0.07 12 0.03 11

Candide, Voltaire (7.3, UG) 0.16 12 0.02 12




Dash (–) means book was not read in grades 9 and 10.


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Common Core State Standards: 11–CCR (College and Career Readiness) Band



Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade

Percent Read In

Band

Most Popular Grade


Black Boy (American Hunger), Richard Wright (7.4, UG) 0.05 10 0.03 10

Walden, Henry David Thoreau (8.7, UG) 0.02 11 0.01 11


1776, David G. McCullough (9.1, UG) 0.01 11 0.01 11

Stories

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.3, UG) 5.51 11 3.70 11

The Scarlet Letter (Unabridged), Nathaniel Hawthorne (11.7, UG) 2.84 11 1.88 11

Pride and Prejudice (Unabridged), Jane Austen (12.0, UG) 1.34 12 0.87 12

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (5.6, UG) 1.04 11 0.62 11

Jane Eyre (Unabridged), Charlotte Brontë (7.9, UG) 0.76 12 0.41 12

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (5.2, UG) 0.25 12 0.20 11

The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe (7.3, UG) 2.35 9 0.19 9

A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway (6.0, UG) 0.23 11 0.12 11

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (8.7, UG) 0.12 12 0.09 12

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner (5.4, UG) 0.06 11 0.05 11

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (8.1, UG) 0.02 12 0.04 12

The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri (7.2, UG) 0.05 12 0.04 11

A White Heron, Sarah Jewett (7.2, UG) 0.02 12 0.03 12

Billy Budd, Sailor, Herman Melville (10.6, UG) 0.04 12 0.02 12

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (13.2, UG) 0.01 12 < 0.01 8

Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina García (6.5, UG) 0.01 12 < 0.01 10


Percent Read in Band indicates the percent of students in grades 11–CCR who read each book during either the 2011–2012 or 2010–2011 school years.



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Appendix: About the Report

How do we know what kids are reading? Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader (AR) software, first developed by educator Judi Paul more than 25 years ago as a way to motivate her own children to read and now in use at tens of thousands of schools worldwide, makes the essential student practice component of any reading curriculum more effective. Students take an AR Reading Practice Quiz after each book they have read, and in turn, Accelerated Reader provides teachers with daily information about the key indicators of successful reading practice—quality (comprehension), quantity (time spent reading), and difficulty (text complexity level). With AR, teachers know how well, how much, and at what level of challenge students are reading.

Unlike publisher book-sale records, best-seller lists, or library circulation data that inform us which books were purchased or checked out to read, Accelerated Reader tells us which books students did read, from cover to cover. At Renaissance Learning, we have unique insight into the books kids are truly reading because our data is compiled from comprehension quizzes students have passed on these books.

Why do kids read the books they read? What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools ranks the books students are reading most each school year, but what is motivating students to read these titles? This year’s report explores student motivation with lists of the top books read in grades 1–12, overall and by gender; Caldecott and Newbery Medal winners since 1938 and 1922, respectively; high school required reading from 1907 to 2012; and a selection of the Common Core State Standard exemplars. Opening the sections of each report are essays by a panel of commentators who were asked to respond to the question, Why do kids read what they read?

The data The Accelerated Reader Real Time database allows schools to have Renaissance Learning host their AR software at the Renaissance Data Center in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, providing schools with cost savings as well as additional security and data protection. This database is the source of the data for What Kids Are Reading, which this year consists of book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students in grades 1–12 who read more than 283 million books during the 2011–2012 school year (see Table A1, next page). The students are from 27,240 schools, spanning all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Unlike publisher book-sale records, best-seller lists, or library circulation data that inform us which books were purchased or checked out to read, Accelerated Reader tells us which books students did read, from cover to cover.

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Table A1: Students, Books, and Words by Grade (Accelerated Reader Real Time Database, 2011–2012 School Year)

Please note: Because schools may optionally record demographic information about students in AR, gender data is available for approximately 66% of students. Thus, in Section I, the overall category compiles student records for boys, girls, and students for which gender was not recorded, whereas when information is reported for the boy and girl categories individually, records for students of unknown gender have been excluded.

In addition, Renaissance Learning recognizes that not all book reading that happens in or outside of the classroom is captured through the Accelerated Reader software; however, it is reasonable to assume that for users of AR much book reading is captured in this way. AR quizzes currently number more than 150,000 (nearly half of which are for nonfiction/informational texts), with additional quizzes created each week. The volume of quizzes allows students a wide range of book selection; virtually every book found in a school, classroom, or local library has a quiz available.

Finally, the sample of data from the AR database, upon which this report is based, is one of convenience rather than truly representative of U.S. schools, so care should be taken when interpreting the results. It cannot, however, be disputed that with reading records for more than 8.6 million students at more than 27,000 American schools, this sample is significant. This database is one of a kind—no other study captures student reading behavior on this scale.

Accelerated Reader While over the years Accelerated Reader has continued to evolve, its basic three-step approach has remained the same. After a teacher assists with setting individualized reading goals, each student (1) reads a self-selected book either at school or at home, (2) takes a computerized AR Reading Practice Quiz of 5, 10, or 20

Grade Students Books ReadAverage Books Read

Per StudentAverage Words Read

Per Student

1 940,387 37,022,855 39.4 25,395

2 1,229,574 69,036,161 56.1 83,176

3 1,309,518 64,564,967 49.3 185,735

4 1,305,824 47,253,713 36.2 298,733

5 1,270,305 34,388,276 27.1 394,154

6 900,972 14,955,239 16.6 439,613

7 673,039 7,659,846 11.4 424,607

8 604,199 5,981,922 9.9 433,598

9 161,980 1,026,327 6.3 305,447

10 124,751 725,944 5.8 306,575

11 97,438 537,496 5.5 307,821

12 71,515 393,279 5.5 314,050

Total 8,689,502 283,546,025

With AR quizzes available for more than 150,000 books, students can take a quiz after reading just about any book available in their school or public libraries.

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items (depending on the length of the book) at school, and (3) receives immediate feedback, which is shared with the teacher, via informative reports that contain information about the books read, including number of words read, ATOS book levels, and level of comprehension (i.e., percent correct on quizzes).

With AR quizzes available for more than 150,000 books, students can take a quiz after reading just about any book available in their school or public libraries. Reading Practice Quizzes (see example, Figure A1) include Recorded Voice and Spanish Quizzes, and AR offers additional quiz types such as Vocabulary Practice Quizzes, Literacy Skills Quizzes, and Other Reading Quizzes (which are aligned to a variety of leading reading textbooks and content-area leveled readers).

Accelerated Reader Enterprise—powered by Renaissance Place Real Time, a web-based data management system—provides access to all AR quizzes as soon they become available. AR Enterprise offerings also include professional development, the Renaissance Place Dashboard, Renaissance Home Connect, the AR Widget, expanded technical support, Live Chat, and automatic software upgrades. AR quizzing is also available on the NEO 2 mobile e-learning device, as an app on iPhone®, iPad®, and iPod touch® devices, and through a browser on tablet devices 7 inches or larger.

The large evidence base supporting Accelerated Reader consists of 145 independent studies and reviews— including experimental and quasi-experimental research studies, generally considered by the research community to provide the strongest evidence of effectiveness and to be consistent with the definition of scientifically based research—as well as more than 26 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The research evidence on Accelerated Reader has been favorably reviewed by the Florida Center for Reading Research, the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, the National Dropout Prevention Center, and the What Works Clearinghouse, among others.

Accelerated Reader Best Practices Guided independent reading practice is crucial for students. Likewise, the ability to quickly and easily track students’ reading practice in terms of comprehension, time spent reading, and text complexity level is essential for teachers. In the age of data-driven schools, having daily information on student reading practice to attach to assessment and other classroom information adds a robust dimension to each student’s data profile. While it is true that Accelerated Reader helps teachers efficiently manage all the details of student reading practice, for students it fosters the vital connection to books that is so critical for success in school and beyond.

Accelerated Reader is in use by hundreds of thousands of educators throughout the U.S. because it saves teachers time, motivates students to read more, and is more reliable and accurate than traditional methods of tracking student book reading. To ensure that teachers make the most of the wealth of data AR provides and that students benefit to the greatest extent possible, fidelity of implementation is guided by research-based Accelerated Reader Best Practices, which educators learn through Renaissance Learning professional development. These guidelines include methods to accelerate reading achievement and sometimes require changes in teacher, classroom, and even school practices, such as allocating more time for in-school reading, establishing individualized goal setting, and carefully monitoring student reading comprehension.

Renaissance Learning strongly recommends AR Best Practices. Extensive research has shown that not only the quantity of reading or time spent reading but also the quality of what is read (how carefully, or with what

Figure A1: Sample AR Quiz Screen

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level of comprehension, students read) can help students read well and become well read. The more carefully students read, the more they comprehend, and the more their reading practice leads to improved reading achievement.18

Matching books to students AR Best Practices recommend that students are not only guided to read books at appropriate levels of challenge and interest but also given choice in what they read. In other words, while students may be assigned books to read as part of a school’s core curriculum, they should also have opportunities to self-select books about topics, characters, locations, and so forth, of interest to them. Once students learn to read, having choice over what they read as they read to learn is motivational, not to mention essential, so that they learn to love to read. Renaissance Learning recommends students consider several factors, guided by a teacher’s professional judgment, when selecting a book to read.

AR BookFinder Using AR BookFinder (www.arbookfind.com)—with an interface in English or Spanish—students can search within extensive lists of topics and subtopics to hone in on particular interests. Lists of award winners, state-specific choices, and librarians’ picks, as well as the overall reading lists from this report, also help guide students to subjects of interest. This tool facilitates easy book selection for students (as well as teachers, parents, and librarians) by providing ATOS book levels, interest levels, genres, and descriptions for all books with AR quizzes available (see Figure A2).

ATOS book levelAccelerated Reader uses the ATOS Readability Formula to measure the text complexity of each book for which an AR quiz is available. ATOS is especially useful to educators because it is reported on a grade-level scale, so that both books and student achievement share the same easy-to-interpret metric. For example, an ATOS book level of 5.4 indicates that the text could likely be read by a student whose reading skills are at the level of grade 5, in the fourth month of the school year.

Text complexity—the level of challenge presented by a given text—is a key component in book selection. According to Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS),19 “all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found in college and careers” (p. 2).

18 Renaissance Learning. (2012). Guided independent reading. Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Author. Available online from http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R005577721AC3667.pdf


Figure A2: AR BookFinder Screen

Once students learn to read, having choice over what they read as they read to learn is motivational, not to mention essential, so that they learn to love to read.

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Renaissance Learning’s ATOS Readability Formula is a reliable and valid measure of text difficulty.20 CCSS Appendix A lists ATOS as a quantitative measure of text complexity that “puts students and texts on the same scale” (p. 7). In an objective evaluation of text complexity measures, Nelson et al. (2011) conducted a study to assess the validity of six text complexity metrics, including ATOS, and found that “all of the metrics were reliably, and often highly, correlated with grade level and student performance-based measures of text complexity across a variety of text sets, and across a variety of reference measures” (p. 46).21

Available to the public at no cost, ATOS estimates the quantifiable dimension of text complexity by taking into account the most important predictors of text difficulty—average sentence length, average word length, word difficulty level, and total number of words in a book or passage—to help educators assist students in finding books to read at appropriate levels.

AR Best Practices recommend students read books with ATOS book levels that fall within their individualized zones of proximal development (ZPD),22 based on grade-equivalent scores provided by a standardized test of general reading achievement, such as the norm-referenced, computer-adaptive STAR Reading assessment.

Even as ATOS is invaluable at estimating challenge level of a given text, this score represents only the quantitative dimension of text complexity. Other factors thought to affect students’ understanding of text, such as text content, structure, and language conventionality, as well as student motivation, background knowledge, and purpose for reading, must also be considered. Accelerated Reader offers additional tools for estimating text complexity and assisting in book selection, such as book interest level.

Interest level An ATOS book level matched to a student’s independent reading range (ZPD) does not necessarily indicate that the content of a book is suitable in any other way for the student. In Accelerated Reader, each book is also assigned an interest level (IL) code. Interest level, which is based on publisher recommendations, provides a qualitative measure of text complexity that refers to the sophistication and maturity level of a book’s content, ideas, and themes. Interest levels are divided into four categories: LG for lower grades (K–3), MG for middle grades (4–8), MG+ for middle grades plus (6 and up, for more mature middle-grade readers), and UG for upper grades (9–12).

Interest level and ATOS book level are intended to work together to inform the book-selection process. For example, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath have ATOS book levels of 4.0 and 4.9, respectively, indicating that average-performing students in fourth grade or higher would likely be able to read the text; however, because of the books’ mature themes, both are coded with an IL of UG, or upper grade.

Monitoring student reading progress With the Standards and other educational advocates, such as ACT, Inc.,23 calling for an emphasis on student reading of increasingly complex materials in order to be ready for college and career, it will do no good for students to read materials at higher difficulty levels if they do not understand what they are reading. Accelerated Reader provides the information teachers need to balance text complexity with student

20 For more information, see The Development of ATOS: The Renaissance Readability Formula (by Michael Milone, Ph.D.), available online from http:// doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R004250827GJ11C4.pdf

21 Nelson, J., Perfetti, C., Liben, D., & Liben, M. (2011). Measures of text difficulty: Testing their predictive value for grade levels and student performance. Technical Report to the Gates Foundation (also to be submitted for publication). Retrieved from http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2012/Measures%20ofText%20Difficulty_final.2012.pdf

22 ZPD, a theoretical concept inspired by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, is based on appropriate level of difficulty—neither too easy nor too hard—where students are challenged without being frustrated (Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.).

23 ACT, Inc. (2006). Reading between the lines: What the ACT reveals about college readiness in reading. Iowa City, IA: Author.

comprehension. The program’s Reading Practice Quizzes help teachers quickly and accurately assess students’ comprehension of each book read as well as monitor their reading progress over time.

For more information about what kids are reading, visit www.renlearn.com/whatkidsarereading to download this report or to find additional book lists, including most-read fiction, nonfiction, and Spanish reading lists.

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