I just downloaded the Renaissance Learning’s (the Accelerated Reader folks) report, What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools. Because kids take AR tests after reading a book, they have an incredible database of more than 7.6 million students from 24,265 schools who read more than 241 million books during the 2012-2011 school year.
This is a fascinating report. It is actual figures from kids who read a book and took a test on it. Notice that in order to be included in this report, a student must have attended a school which uses the AR program AND taken a test on the book. Obviously, there are many students outside these parameters: not all schools use AR, students don’t always take tests on leisure reading. Still, this is a fascinating snapshot of reading habits of kids.
What are kids reading?
Grades 1-3
- Classics. Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and other titles dominate in first grade, second grade, and are strong in third grade, even though these books are a 1.5 reading level.
- Easy Read Series in Grades 1-3. Other easy read series are popular in the early grades, including titles about the dog, Biscuit, by Alyssa Satin. Tedd Ardold’s Fly Guy gets some reads, and Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants gets traction. Overall, the titles are classics, with few, if any contemporary books making the cut.
- Picture Books. Some picture books hit the lists in grades 1-3, but they are mostly classics like Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Moose a Muffin, or David Shannon’s David Goes to School.
Grades 3-5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid reigns supreme from 3rd to 7th grade. Yes, it spans that large an audience. Otherwise–classics. Some early readers, picture books, some award winning books. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner; Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst; The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein; Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. And of course, Captain Underpants and Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey.
Grades 6-8.
Rick Riordan’s Lightning Thief series gains traction here, but it is quickly overtaken by classic novels required in literature classes. By 8th grade, the top book is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games series is battling Diary of a Wimpy Kid for top spots. The rest of it is pretty much a list of recommended literature studies units, with a few fun things thrown in like Harry Potter.
Grades 9-12.
“In total, 388,963 ninth-twelfth graders read 2,290,522 books and 119,420,117,649 words during the 2010-11 school year. The average number of words read was 245,244 for boys and 345,725 for girls.&
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