Reading level 8: what it looks like and what to practise

What a level 8 story reads like

This is the start of Sinbad and the Roc, a retold classic in Peabody's library at level 8 (measured reading ease 7.8). The whole story is free to read, with no account.

Long ago, in the great city of Baghdad, there lived a merchant named Sinbad, who had already sailed across the world once and come home rich. For a while he was perfectly content to sit in his beautiful house beside the river, eating dates and listening to music. But before long, he grew restless.

The story teaches 6 words, each with a kid-sized meaning. A few: merchant (trader), voyage (long sea trip), roc (giant bird) and ravine (steep valley).

Compared with level 7: the longest sentence goes from 48 to 62 words, a screen goes from 90–130 words to 100–145, and the share of words allowed off the familiar-word list goes from 17% to 19%.

What Peabody practises at level 8

At this level the practice brain works on vocabulary and spelling. The skills it holds, in the order it teaches them:

A word a child gets right is done for good and is not asked again, so practice moves on rather than looping. The sight-word lists are pre-primer (40), primer (52), first grade (41), second grade (46) and third grade (41). The full phonics scope and sequence is a free guide.

Free games that practise these skills

Every game below asks questions from the same practice brain, as three big boxes to tap, with no typing. They start from a child's grade, not their reading level, so a game's questions fit the grade they pick.

Two word games sit outside the learning list: Word Rescue (catch falling letters to spell words from your story) and Word Blocks (hop on the word you hear).

The arcade also has two action games with cartoon violence, Sniper and Doomcrawl. We leave them off these lists on purpose; every game is on the games page.

Free stories at level 8

The 14 open stories at level 8 include 11 retold classics and 4 spooky ones, marked as such. Their themes include classic, friendship, adventure, animals, gardens and greece.

• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
• The Bee Line
• Bellerophon and Pegasus
• Sinbad and the Roc
• The Happy Prince
• The Secret Garden

All level 8 stories are free to read without an account. Each ends with questions of a few kinds: inference, literal and word-in-context.

Other levels

Level 7 · Level 9 · all levels and grades · the reading levels cheat sheet

Questions parents ask

Which children start at level 8?

No grade starts at level 8. Peabody starts a child one level under their grade, so a reader reaches this level by reading up from below as books run easy.

How is level 8 measured?

From the text, never from the child. The limits are a longest sentence of 62 words, 100 to 145 words a screen, a Flesch–Kincaid score of 7.5 to 8.5 and at most 19% of words off the Dale–Chall list.

Is it free?

Yes, free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up. Peabody is a reading app, not an assessment: it cannot hear a child read, so a teacher is the one to ask about fluency.