Washington County Library has incorporated Lexile Levels into our catalog, which allows parents, guardians, and teachers to search and browse for books at a specific reading level. You can learn more about Lexile below, and find links to specific Lexile ranges in our catalog.

What is Lexile?

Lexile and other reading measurements are used to help identify reading materials that meet each child’s independent reading ability. They’re designed to help find “just right” books that are a little challenging, but not so difficult that a young reader gets frustrated. This allows kids to find books they can enjoy reading, without struggling to decode or understand the words on the page. Lexile only measures text difficulty, it does not measure other criteria such as content, age appropriateness or reader’s interests.

What if we don’t use Lexile?

Don’t know your student’s Lexile score? That’s ok! Lexile is just one of several different reading level systems. This chart from Raz-Kids compares Lexile measurements with other leveling systems like Guided Reading Levels, Fountas and Pennill, or age and grade level. With this information, you can translate various leveling systems into Lexile before jumping into our catalog.

Lexile is the leveling system that is used with the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, so students who have completed those standardized tests will have a Lexile range for their reading in the results. Your student’s teacher is also a good resource to find out your child’s reading level.

How do I find books by Lexile level?

Lexile measures go from 0L for early readers to above 2000L for advanced readers. According to Lexile, students and parents should look for reading materials around 100L below or 50L above their reported Lexile measure.

Below, you’ll find links that will take you to specific lists of books in our catalog that are rated at a different Lexile levels. You can also do a subject search within the catalog, then identify specific Lexile levels in the facets located in the left-hand column of the search.

It’s important to remember to help your child guide his or her book selection by interest first. Once your child identifies some books he or she is interested in, you can use our catalog to check the reading level. This will allow your child to practice self-selection and reading enjoyment.