A Content Analysis Study of the Equivalency of Publishers' Easy Reader Leveling Systems

This study examines the book and text features and language and literary features of easy reader books. Leveled easy readers published by HarperCollins, Random House, and Simon & Schuster were analyzed. The results reveal trends in the difficulty of sixteen book characteristics. The coding scores derived from content analysis were used to compare the leveling systems employed by the publishers. The study culminated in the creation of an equivalency chart that can be used to quickly compare the difficulty of easy readers on each level assigned by HarperCollins, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. Children's librarians, school media specialists, and parents may use the equivalency tool developed during this study to assist them in selecting books for beginning readers