I dont use the book bands alone to level children..ours have been levelled in line with Reading Recovery levels, but they still differ so much.

I level them based on whether they are able to blend CVC words, consonant blends, whether they recognise long vowels, whether they recognise alternative phonemes and try different ways of sounding words, and whether they have a good understanding of the book.

Not much help im afraid - just dont think book bands should be the only levelling tool.

There are two charts in Resources which you might find useful:

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Conversion-chart-for-reading-book-bands-to-levels-3002648/

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Guide-to-Reading-Bands-3006763/

Can I add to this question??

I'm trying to regrade our reading books using the National Book Band colours but am getting very confused whilst grading books above Lime. For example alot of Oxford Reading tree levels 11 and above use the gold/white/lime grading but also a Y3/Y4/Y5 etc grading. I don't understand how some books can be Lime and Y3 while others are Lime and Y5!! Being a Primary school I need to have all thelevels but I'm not sure where to place any of them!

Regarding the Levels at Orange/Turquoise/Purple levels I have matched with the links given on this website.

 Is this thread some sort of esoteric joke?

 I'm guessing that a lime year 5 would have different topics and illustrations in it to a lime year 3 as there is a great difference in what a year 3 and year 5 child might be interested in, and what would be suitable content, even though their reading "level" is the same. If it's just OUP stuff you are getting stuck with I'm sure the OUP website and a telephone call to the publisher would help to clear up the problem.

The more recent OUP publications are better at getting the bookband right.  For some reason the stages in the Oxford reading tree can cover different bookband levels - e.g. you might find a bookband 6 or 7 book in stage 8, although stage 8 mostly consists of bookband 8 purple books.  I don't know why they do this.  Presumably the idea is to give the child who is just ploughing through a particular stage a mix of easy reads and harder reads.  Why they don't just leave this to the teacher to work out I don't know.

 From start to finish, I mean.  Or was the OP being serious?

 Agree with the other posters that there is more to this than the bookband the child is reading.  One of mine can read bookband purple and work out 99.5% of the words for herself, but if I were to look at the APP guidelines for a 2c there are plenty of other things she would fall short on.  And I don't know what would happen if she were to be given a level 2 reading SAT.

Now, I know it's a con.  What's a child doing with an /ess ay tee/?

 Why have you got two esses and no ay tee?

 Level 2 Reading in the National Curriculum:

"Pupils' reading of simple texts shows understanding and is generally accurate. They express opinions about major evnts or ideas in stories, poems and non-fiction.  \they use more than one strategy, such as phonic, graphic, syntactic and contextual, in reading unfamiliar words and establishing meaning."

How do you use that to turn a poem, say, into sky blue pink, or whatever?

The NC reading levels are about what the children can do, not what colour the book is.

(Reminds me of that great, not very clever, in fact simpleton, really, character in "Porridge".  "I read a book once.  [Pause]  Blue, it were.")

This is Porridge assessment.

 The books are colour coded to match the National Curriculum expectations so if a child can read a book and fulfil those expectations they would be a level 2

If for example they were reading a simple text from lilac level

I am top cat.

No I am top cat.

Am I top cat?

No I am top cat.

(repeat above)

Pop!

Am I top cat?

or 

This is Pip.

Pip is a busy dog.

Pip has her food.

Then she has a sleep.

Pip runs with a ball.

Then she has a sleep.

Pip jumps in the pond.

Then she has a sleep.

It has been a busy day.

and express opinions about major evnts or ideas in stories, poems and non-fiction.  \they use more than one strategy, such as phonic, graphic, syntactic and contextual, in reading unfamiliar words and establishing meaning.

I doubt they are a level 2 

 Why?  They're fulfilling what it says.  NC level says nothing about reading ease of text.  Does what you quoted fit appropriate key stage programme of study?

Of course, levelling is done at the end of the key stage when they've responded to a range of texts, though, not just one thing.  An NC level isn't a snapshot.

Assessment with a rainbow of texts, you might say!

 Beautifully put.  Have to say the opening post does puzzle me as it refers to APP.  I can't see how you can read all that APP stuff and think that you can just plonk out a  level according to the colour of the book.

 Sorry!  I got the colour wrong.

You'll see if you go on to YouTube and search "Porridge Barker read a book once".

Then you can tell me what level he was.

Still can't think of the name of the actor.

 Got it - the character was "Heslop".

"Brian Glover’s brain-dead Mr. 'I read a book once - green it was.' Heslop".

 And he played the star (or thought he was)footballer/PE teacher in "Kes".

Marlin, where have you got these from and what are they based upon? Both resources are very useful but i just needed to know the source. Any idea, please?