How does Big Cat align to the DfE Reading Framework? 

    Big Cat books are designed to appeal to different age groups, reading levels and interests, ensuring a diverse selection that encourages children to read often and widely. 

    Big Cat books are carefully levelled, easy to implement and accessible for all, meaning that every child can build reading fluency and stamina at apace that suits them.

    Big Cat offers graduated progression with over 2000 books, allowing children agency and choice over what they read and the variety to enable adults to help children choose books linked to their abilities and interests.

    Discover the Collins Big Cat Reading Programme

    Explore a handy overview of the Big Cat programme and see how it supports every stage of primary reading development.
    See overview

    What’s new from Big Cat 

      “The reading ethos within our school has changed since having Collins Big Cat. Children strive to read and enjoy more books, and it has definitely had the impact we wanted.” 

      New Invention Junior School 

      Reflecting a diverse readership 

      Big Cat books are for all children and aim to represent a range of different lived experiences. We understand the importance of children seeing themselves in books and having the opportunity to encounter different views, places and people. 

      Programme highlights 

          Cross-curriculum book collections

          Engage your pupils with fiction and non-fiction books carefully matched to the English, history, geography, and science Programmes of Study - inspire learning across subjects with Big Cat.

          “Our pupils love the variety of texts on offer… the breadth of Collins Big Cat titles ensures that all children are catered for no matter what their proficiency and particular interest, with many of the books linked to our curriculum themes.” 

          Tibberton CE Primary School

          The Collins Big Cat catalogue

          Browse the complete Collins Big Cat catalogue to explore our full range of colour-banded, levelled readers for KS1 and KS2. Find books by band, reading level, or genre and take a closer look inside before you choose.
          Download catalogue

          Primary reading blog

          Articles and information by teachers for teachers
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          Why reading, and reading about history, is important

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          2026 is the Year of Reading; something we should celebrate and embrace. Most people, after all, have at least an inkling of an idea that reading is good for us, and that it is something we should encourage young people...

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          Keeping the reading spark alive in the primary-secondary transition

          Keeping the reading spark alive in the primary-secondary transition

          As an English teacher and children's author, you might imagine my thirteen-year-old son to be the world's biggest reader. That's not quite how things have turned out. It wasn't always this way - back in primary school, he loved reading.

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          Meet Joynina K. Jones – the funny, flawed diarist who can help students explore big feelings, illness and emotional growth

          Meet Joynina K. Jones – the funny, flawed diarist who can help students explore big feelings, illness and emotional growth

          Joynina Jones is opinionated, sometimes awkward and has more than her fair share of embarrassing moments too. But Joynina faces more than everyday school drama. She also has sickle cell disorder – a condition that affects her red blood cells...

          5 min

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