I finally sat down and tried to figure out how a certain set of books we own in our neighborhood library works. I knew that they correspond to reading levels for the kids, but I didn’t quite know how. To the untrained eye the system would definitely look out of order – for instance the books in our library are in order by M3, E3, M4, E4, M5, and E5. (It’s quite possible that they could have been out of order, as I ended up putting all of the comic books in order when I arrived.) But no, it’s quite intended.
I looked up the reading system (AVI niveau) on the internet. The number refers to the groep (grade) that the student is in, with groep 1 being 4 or 5 years old. The ‘M’ refers to them being in the middel/middle of their reading level and the ‘E’ refers to einde/end of the reading level. Thus on average a groep 4 student might be reading E3, M4, or E4 books.
AVI conversion table from the old (oud) system to the new (nieuw) system, with the leerjaar/groep number on the side.
Life in the Hague 