You can find the full library of books by clicking on Library on the left hand side menu in your Sparx Reader site. Here, you can search for books, filter by reading age and see books that are new or are coming soon.

You can click on a book to see a book summary, themes, and any minimum age ratings:

When a student starts a new ebook in Sparx Reader, they are given a choice of four books. The book selection is based on:

Research suggests that when students are given too many books to choose from, they will struggle to decide. In our experience, this can often mean students do not end up making a choice at all.

Paradoxically, limiting this choice to a small number of books increases the likelihood of a student making a choice and sticking with it.

Given the national reading for pleasure crisis, it’s arguably true to say that many pupils really haven’t read a great deal on their own, or ‘for pleasure’ yet in their lives. This potentially means that many young people haven’t been exposed to the breadth, depth and variety there is to be discovered within each genre, causing them to write off stories that they might actually find interesting and satisfying to read.

Background knowledge is the strongest predictor of reading comprehension ability. It goes without saying that the more knowledge a reader has about the world, the more likely they will be able to access more complex texts. Background knowledge plays a critical role in ‘the constant and perpetual process of disambiguation’.

The more widely read a pupil is, the more likely they are to then be able to unlock meaning in new texts - the various lexical fields associated with different genres will undoubtedly boost stores of vocabulary knowledge.

Books are hard to get into at first, particularly if you’ve found reading difficult historically. Encourage pupils to persevere, as they would with any other homework, and they may well start to enjoy the experience as they see success. If they are find a book particularly difficult to get into, however, they will have the opportunity to swap the book by giving it a low rating.

Remember Sparx Reader is one strand of your whole school reading policy. We urge pupils to visit the library to select books to read alongside their Sparx homework texts. We know that many of you are reading books in form time with your pupils too.

Non-fiction, fact books, graphic novels etc are all vitally important parts of the adolescent reading experience and it is our hope that pupils actively look for texts to peruse in libraries, classrooms and bookshops. Avid readers are still very much encouraged to continue reading the books they love outside of their Reader homework.

Gold Reader allows students to complete their Reader homework by reading their own book - if a pupil exhibits excellent reading habits they will quickly earn this freedom.

We understand the appeal of non-fiction texts for many of your struggling and reluctant readers, we know that engaging with non-fiction texts is vital across the curriculum, and we know that pupils often gravitate towards these types of books when given the opportunity to choose in your school library, for example.

We do offer some narrative non-fiction books in our library (for example, the Football "Rising Stars" series), however, our library is mostly comprised of fiction for the following reasons:

The questions on Sparx Reader are designed to feel like an extension of the story for a student who has read the text carefully, with answers that are easy and quick to recall because they focus on central, salient themes, characters and ideas. Questions for a non-fiction text would would necessarily have to draw on hard facts that would require memorisation during reading, which could make reading a stressful, overwhelming and unnatural experience for students.

The chance for pupils to build a sustained relationship with a book, and to stretch their attention spans by becoming immersed in the world of a story over the course of many weeks and months, is something we place a very high value on. We structure the process for pupils so that they are able to stay engaged with a number of narrative threads and feel a regular sense of success as they persevere with an entire work of fiction. In contrast, the act of non-fiction reading can be quite fragmentary in nature; a young reader tends to jump around to various points on the page, drawn by visuals or headings that contain information of interest to the individual. To an extent, non-fiction reading can also encourage skimming and scanning, which is not the type of reading that Sparx Reader promotes.

Our stance on non-fiction in no way devalues its importance as reading matter for young people; in fact we know that it is an indispensable category of text, familiarity with which forms the basis for much of the learning and assessment at secondary level. We do not contest the centrality of non-fiction in supporting pupils to form their own opinions, and to challenge and develop their understanding of how the world works. Reader opens up access to a huge range of fiction texts, allowing pupils to build a sustained relationship with a narrative over time and - in doing so - give them insights into the lived experiences of characters and cultures a world away from their own.

Sparx Reader is designed to support students to build strong reading habits that help them to learn to read with care, precision and insights. We believe that this particular aim is best achieved when pupils read texts by themselves without pictures.

While images can heighten enjoyment and interest, they do not necessarily promote careful, individual reading for comprehension and establishing meaning. In order to become proficient in close reading, learners must take responsibility for comprehending and establishing meaning, themselves.

The only exceptions are some of our 'High Interest age, Low Reading age' books (HiLo), which are geared towards supporting reluctant, novice readers. In these books, the images are an integral part of the enjoyment of the story. However, even in these cases, the question checks are carefully calibrated so as not to focus on the images and are designed to appear before a picture is seen that might reveal the answer.