How Hard Is a Book to Read

I've been thinking about what makes a book or text hard or easy to read.

Here are some of the things commonly used to judge the difficulty of a book. These features are often items that can be counted by a computer.

• Difficulty of individual words (are they sight words, or are do they follow simple phonics, depending on how the child is taught)
• Length of words.
• Number of words per page.
• Number of words per sentence
• Length of paragraphs.

Here are some other things people commonly look at when judging if a book is too hard, especially for an early reader.

• Size of type.
• Presence of pictures.
• Amount of white space between words.
• General density of text on page.

Here are even more things that are cited when looking for a book for a particular child.

• Reader's interest in given subject.
• Reader's prior knowledge about given subject.

Now, here are some more things that I don't hear talked about often when judging the difficulty of a book. However, I find that they are important and can explain why some picture books with simple language can still be difficult for a young child.

• Point of view. Most stories are in the third person. If a book is in the first person, it can be difficult for a novice reader to identify the "I" character. If the point of view changes, novice readers can also get lost.
• Flow of events. The easiest to under stand stories are written in strictly chronological order with no large leaps in time. Stories with flashbacks or large skips in the passage of time can be confusing, especially if the changes in time aren't explicitly stated.
• Location. Simple stories have clearly identified locations, and any movement from one location to another is clearly stated. However implied location changes, uncertain location changes, or even location changes by magical means can be confusing.
• Characters. In simple stories, people are clearly identified by name and relationship. More complex stories might have characters with unstated names (such as the narrator in a first person point of view story) or characters with implied relationships - are they siblings or friends? Usage of varying nicknames for a character or having people call the same character different things can be confusing. Foreign names and similar sounding names can also cause comprehension problems.
• Books without clear distinctions between what happens magically and what happens according to the rules of real life can also cause comprehension problems.

So, that's some of my thoughts about the why some books are too hard.