An Overview: Book quality criteria tool

The ‘Quality Book Criteria’ tool is currently used by Save the Children UK in the Children’s Book Initiative projects in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Rwanda, and the First Read projects in Thailand, Lebanon, Rwanda, Cambodia and the Philippines. The tool has two domains: 1) levelling, using the Fountas and Pinnell levelling criteria and 2) social and cultural factors. Books should be reviewed using this tool to ensure that they are culturally sensitive, that they model positive role models, are gender sensitive, and age age-appropriate.

A guide for using the tools is included, as is an example of a completed version of the tool applied to the Biff and Chip early reader series.  Project staff should set their own pass rate when using the tool following a review of the book sector in their country or contexts.