Reading ladders is a technique to build readers by guiding them slowly from one book to another and so on. It sort of combines thematic units with vertical and horizontal planning. I wanted to show a way of taking readers from a simple book to one that is a little more complex and so on as well as show them books that are similar in theme, setting, etc.

Hope this helps. You can read Chapter One of the book online at the Heinemann web site. There should be a link there to the wiki I created for the book, too.