Read Up for Chrome

Finding books that are suitable for children can be a difficult task. It’s not only about choosing those that are free of profanity and graphic sex or violence, but ones that kids will actually read from start to finish. The problem that often arises is that if they start a book that’s above their level, they can get bored and abandon the whole reading business for a long time.

The same difficult task may befall upon teachers trying to find the best books for their students. Unless you wish to spend a lot of time researching the best reading material for your young ones, you could try installing Read Up in your browser.

Once you add Read Up to Google Chrome, searching the web for books will become a bit more easier. The extension creates an additional table that is displayed directly on a book’s webpage, without being obtrusive in any way. Here you will find a book’s reading levels, displayed according to four measuring standards: Lexile, Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level (F&P GRL), ATOS Book Levels and Accelerated Reader (AR) Points.

If you’re not very familiar with these standards, the larger number displayed on the right represents the Grade Level Equivalent, which is basically the readability of a book according to a student’s grade. Read Up also displays information like the book’s word count, topic and interest level (also based on grades).

According to the developers, the extension supports Amazon, Goodreads, Overdrive, Google Books, LibraryThing, Common Sense Media, Accelerated Reader Bookfinder, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo. While these are probably all your best major sources of books and eBooks, sometimes Read Up won’t load, no matter how many times you click refresh.

At other times, it’s unable to find reading levels for some books, even if they are well-known. So while Read Up is designed as a helpful tool, it may take a while before it truly becomes a time saver.