NoveList’s reading levels are determined by age, but reading abilities and interests vary widely within a specific age group. MetaMetrics is a North Carolina-based company that developed Lexile ratings, a scientific measure of how difficult a book is to read. The Lexile Measure is a number indicating the reading demand of the text in terms of semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length). The Lexile scale ranges from 200 to 1700 Lexiles. Metametrics also uses additional Lexile Codes, or alphabetic designations to indicate special charateristics of the text.

You can use Lexiles to find books that are at an appropriate level of difficulty for your child or student.

For example, a father whose twelve-year-old son
is a reluctant reader but has read and enjoyed Louis Sachar’s book Holes could use NoveList to discover that Holes has a Lexile score of 660. This father could then use the Lexile limiter to only retrieve titles that are within his son’s reading ability: one hundred points below and fifty points above the score of 660 would be what Lexile’s creators recommend. A search limited to a Lexile range of 560-710 for books with twelve-year-old boys as characters retrieves over eighty potential titles.

Beginning your search with a book your young reader has already conquered will probably bring the best results from Lexiles. You may also use the chart to the right to estimate the reader’s Lexile range based on grade level. Keep in mind, however, that approximately 50% of students read at a higher or lower Lexile level than what is represented in the chart for their grade level.

You can learn more about how to equate Lexile scores to reading levels by reading MetaMetric’s FAQon the subject (at the Educator's site) at http://www.lexile.com.

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Lexile Codes

The following designations are used in conjunction with the Lexile measure of a text to indicate special characteristics of the text.

Illustrated Glossary (IG): A text designated as "IG" consists of independent pieces of text such as the glossary of a book. These independent pieces may be interchanged without affecting the flow of the text. "IG" texts typically contain some or all of the following characteristics:

• The definitions of words or their pronunciations are contained directly in the text.
• Technical vocabulary is printed in a contrasting type (e.g., bold, italic).
• Each topic is presented on one or two pages, with titles and/or captions for each paragraph.
• Illustrations are incorporated in the text.

Non-Conforming Text (NC): A text designated as "NC" consists of semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length) that is inconsistent with the developmental appropriateness of the text. Typically these texts are written at a higher level than would be suggested by the content and format of the text. Texts designated as "NC" are useful when matching advanced readers with text at an appropriate developmental level.

Beginning Reading (BR): A text designated as "BR" is any text that has a Lexile measure of zero or below. The measure is shown only as "BR" without the zero or negative number appearing.

Adult Directed (AD): A text designated as "AD" is one designed to be read to or with readers. The following guidelines shoud be used when examing an "AD" text:

• Text Placement
• Sentence Length
• Font Size and Placement
• Basic Word Usage
• Illustration Context
• Book Size

Texts designated as "AD" are useful when reading to a group and can be used to improve listening comprehension skills (e.g., making predictions, engaging in discussion, identifying meaning, and acquiring vocabulary).

Non-Prose (NP): A text designated as "NP" is any book whose content is at least 50% nonstandard prose. Some explanations are poems, plays, songs, and books with incorrect or no punctuation.

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