The LowdownSupport every child on their journey to reading fluently with over 1,300 carefully levelled readers.
Equally split between fiction and non-fiction and covering a wide variety of genres and text types, you’ll find something to inspire and engage every reader.
From early phonic development to fluent reading, Collins Big Cat is a whole-school programme that provides complete support for primary reading.
Each book in the range is carefully levelled in line with the Institute of Education book bands for guided reading.
As pupils progress through the colour bands, they build their reading stamina and high-order comprehension skills as the text and vocabulary become more complex, resulting in fluency in reading.
Big Cat books are written by award-winning and much-loved children’s authors from around the world.
“The Big Cat reading books are amazing; our students are engaged and enthusiastic about learning to read”
Assistant headteacher, Pathways School
All books feature beautiful illustrations and stunning photography to bring them to life and encourage reading for pleasure.
Covering a wide range of cross-curricular topics, you’ll find something to support every pupil including dual-banded books for struggling readers, longer, more complex texts to challenge more able pupils, and graphic novels to encourage reluctant readers.
Hundreds of Big Cat books have also been quizzed for Accelerated Reader and Reading Recovery.
You can also develop and assess key reading skills, including inference and deduction, through comprehensive teaching and assessment support.
Each book concludes with a reader response page and an ‘Ideas for reading’ page written by a literacy expert, offering comprehension activities and ideas for what to read next.
Teachers can save planning and preparation time with a range of free downloadable resources to accompany the books.
- Collins are committed to giving visibility and representation to all our readers by including characters from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, and by telling stories about neurodiverse people and those with different abilities.
- Every book is also available digitally via a subscription to the Big Cat ebook library. The ebook library supports front of class teacher modelling and allows teachers to assign pupils books to read, either in school or at home, at an appropriate level, without the need to share physical books.
