What are High Interest, Low Reading Level Books?
If you are an educator or a parent, you may have heard this term floating around. But what exactly does this mean, and just how easy are they to find? Read this blog to learn what High Interest, Low Reading Level Books are, and how they could be the key to engaging older struggling readers.
High Interest, Low Reading Level Books
Definition
High interest, low reading level books (or, for short, Hi-Lo books) are books written at a low reading level with subject matter for older audiences. They feature simple vocabulary and syntax, older characters, and age-appropriate themes and stories.
These books are important in not only bringing back reading for pleasure but also boosting reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension for older struggling readers. Oftentimes, these readers find themselves unable to keep up with what their peers are reading and end up stuck with books for “little kids.” The result? They grow averse to books and disengage from reading altogether. Hi-Lo books offers a solution to that.
Hi-Lo books come in an array of genres. From fantasy to sports, you will be able to find a Hi-Lo book that interests your reader and ignites a love of reading in them. You can also find excellent Hi-Lo books from Readeezy.
Readeezy interviewed over 200 parents and teachers to learn what features they thought would make a difference to their children or students. They unanimously expressed a need for illustrations, accessibility tools like text-to-speech, critical analytics for progress monitoring, and books aligned for their population.
Readeezy books have specific features that engage and help readers, and make them distinctly Hi-Lo. They include:
- Relevant and mature storylines
- Illustrations on every page, with a few animations here and there, to aid their understanding of the story
- Text-to-speech narration
- Gamified checks for understanding
With these qualities, Readeezy books are an ideal resource for supporting all students who struggle to read, including those with learning and speech disabilities, visual impairments, and literacy gaps.
In a study conducted by Readeezy, data showed that the majority of learning disabled teens and young adults enjoyed, understood, and remembered the Readeezy story they read. Out of 88 students ages 11-21 years old, 86% could understand what was happening in the story.
Most Hi-Lo books come in print, but Readeezy provides them in a completely digital format. This eliminates various barriers to reading by 1) enabling the use of assistive technologies like text-to-speech and 2) creating more opportunities for engagement, such as animated illustrations and interactive questions at the end of each chapter. Plus, these features and tools make independent reading for struggling readers all the more easy, which is crucial for building stamina and encouraging them to keep reading.
And according to the same study, readers said they preferred reading on a digital device to print by a ratio of two to one.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and reorganize itself in response to different stimuli and experiences. However, once a person stops using a specific part of the brain, neural connections begin to get pruned away in that section. “Use it or lose it,” say experts in the field. These Hi-Lo stories are important because they motivate young people to read and, simply put, grow their brains.
How can you find Hi-Lo books? Readeezy provides a collection of Hi-Lo books for a variety of ages intended to hook readers. Search results for “Hi-Lo books” also lead to many other books and resources. Many of these are often categorized by age range and/or Lexile level, which defines the difficulty level of a text. Readeezy books range anywhere from 410L to 1000L. Our library currently has the following titles:
- The Courage to Dream: 610-800L
- Crazy Legs (The Fixers Part 1): 410-600L
- Boss Girl (The Fixers, Part 2): 410-600L
- K-Lass (The Fixers, Book 3): 410-600L
- Different: 610-800L
- Perfect Pitch: 610-800L
- Vacation Island Mystery: 410-600L
- How a Dog Saved My Life: 610-800L
- Missing: 410-600L
- Trust NoBody: 610-800L
- Friendship Under Fire: 610-800L
- Saving Grace: 810-1000L
- Prophecy Kitty Cat: 610-800L
Hi-Lo books offer a perfect middle ground between children’s literature and regular chapter books by providing engaging content that is neither “childish” or too difficult to read. While several companies have started to provide Hi-Lo titles, only Readeezy’s Hi-Lo books come with unique features like animated illustrations, gaming-type assessments, and accessibility tools.
Let your struggling reader know that the perfect book does exist. Check out our growing library of interactive Hi-Lo books here.
Justus, Kathryn. (2020). Hi-lo & mighty reads: 15 engaging and accessible series for reluctant and striving readers. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/15-engaging-%C2%ADaccessible-series-for-%C2%ADreluctant-striving-readers-great-books-hi-lo
Understanding lexile & quantile measures: A guide for educators. LEXILE HUB. (n.d.). https://lexile.com/educators/understanding-lexile-measures/about-lexile-measures-for-reading/
