Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. is a free online library that contains thousands of ebooks for children. All you need to access these resources is a library card from your public library and a computer/laptop or a portable device such as a tablet, a smartphone or an ereader.
To find digital titles suitable for your child’s interest or reading level follow these steps:
1. Go to the Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. kids page:
2. Click on the ‘Sign In’ link at the top of the page.
3. Select your library from the drop-down list and enter your library card number.
4. To see all the books suitable for your child’s interest or reading level click on the ‘Levels’ tab located on the blue bar at the top of the page. A menu will appear with four different types of lists – interest level, A.T.O.S. level, Lexile Measure and Text Difficulty (for more information about these measures see this Library Help Page:
5. Select the level you wish to view
6. A page will open showing titles sorted by that measure.
7. On the left hand side of the page will be a menu offering options to narrow the list of titles:
8. When you see a title that looks interesting, click the book icon located on the cover to check it out. A black icon means the book is available for immediate checkout. A gray icon means the book is currently checked out by another user but you can place a hold on it and be notified by email when it becomes available.
9. At the end of the loan period (either 7, 14 or 21 days) the title is automatically returned to Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. There are never any overdue fines at the digital library!
10. For a more extensive explanation of the checkout and download process for digital books please see this Getting Started page or email READS Support (rsupport.tsla@tn.gov) for further assistance.
Using Lexile Scores – An Example
Ophelia made good progress in reading during 4rd grade. She had proudly read chapter books like “Ramona’s World” by Beverly Cleary and “A Month of Sundays” by Ruth White. Her dad wanted to challenge her to try something a bit more difficult over the summer before 5th grade.
Using the R.E.A.D.S. site, he found that those two books had Lexile scores of 750 and 680. According to the study posted on the R.E.A.D.S. site, successful 5th graders read at Lexile levels from 830-1010.
Ophelia and her father went back to the R.E.A.D.S. site together. They went to the Lexile Measures link and chose to look at books in the 800-1000 range. A big group of books with colorful titles popped up. Ophelia was excited when she spotted another Beverly Cleary book, “Henry and the Clubhouse” to check out. Her dad noted that it had a Lexile level of 820, so he knew it would be just about right to help Olivia stretch to reading at a higher level.