I never understood the "reading level" thing here. Growing up (in Czech Republic) ... every year we had a list of books we HAD to read (10-15 books) ... those books were the "treasures" of our literature, starting with simpler ones for the little kids and more demanding for older kids and had to write reports on those books and then we were supposed to read a certain number of books we'd choose and write reports on those. But nobody really cared about what "level" they were. It was books we were interested in. I spent probably good 5 or 6 years reading nothing but books about aliens or native Americans (Karl May and his books about Winnetou ... for those who are familiar with them :)). It was all about finding something you truly wanted to read so you would stick with reading rather than being told what and when to read. This also meant that nobody really needed LA acceleration because they could keep themselves at the level appropriate for them.
btw ... didn't mean it in a bad way! ... unfortunately, in the US, for the most part you do need to know what level your child is because that's how things are around here
... My first paragraph is just a little vent ... because it's something that just bugs me!
