personally figure that any book DD chooses to read (and actually does read) is an appropriate level. There are some lower-level books she hasn't finished because of content (boring or too mature), and some really high-level stuff she has pushed through on sheer force of will (a 7th grade book on seals she picked out in first grade, because the "over 6th grade" indicator is almost the same color as the "first grade" indicator in the school library).
I agree with this. I figure if DD chooses it herself and reads the entire thing (unless it's very short), it's at the right level--or at least, it's not way too hard. DD usually chooses books in the 3rd-6th range, but there's a series rated 7th/8th that she loves and has pushed through (FTR, I think it's rated too high).
Most of the books she's interested in now are 5th grade level; it's hard to find 6th-grade-and-higher books that are interesting for a nearly-8yo.
Yes, we find our DD is staying in about this range as well. Fortunately, there are tons of good books at this level.
