List of Books, Phonic Skills and High Frequency Words

The 500 Books are listed alphabetically. Additional information includes details of: (i) authors; (ii) type (i.e. subject matter); (iii) theme (i.e. jealousy, revenge) and (iv) the proportion of the books that can be read through the 85 phonics skills and 100 high frequency words that are used for skill matching.

Phonic skills are listed in order of frequency according to our analysis of children’s literature. We also include details of how often these phonic skills have been assessed in the phonic screen since it was introduced in 2012. This will be updated annually.

High frequency words will also be listed according to their frequency in written English.

The Programmes section of the website allows teachers to refine and personalise the skill matching function of 500 Books so that it is finely tuned to the synthetic phonics programme that they are using to teaching reading. We have identified five widely used phonics programmes (Jolly Phonics, Letters and Sounds, Optima Reading, Read Write Inc, and THRASS) and our research has calculated the proportion of the 500 books that can be read by the skills taught in each programme which are also listed according to their frequency in written English.