Raising readers has sadly become a more challenging task and many of us are worrying about the long term impact of this on future generations. According to the most recent research by The National Literacy Trust, children and young people’s reading enjoyment has reached the lowest level they’ve ever recorded. Just 1 in 3 children and young people aged 8-18 say they enjoy reading in their free time. It represents a heartbreaking and alarming decline.
The benefits of reading are enormous. Academics aside, reading helps us relax, feel happy, learn new things, enrich our vocabulary more, understand the views of others, learn about other cultures, develop our imaginations and be confident. When children discover the joy of reading, they discover so much. What impact might this decline in reading for pleasure have on our society over the coming years?
Our passion is books (of course!) and one of our aims has always been to connect children with genres, authors and stories that they may not already have discovered. We believe that solutions are there for us to explore. How can we - parents, teachers, librarians and readers - help to reverse this trend? There are campaigns to support and save libraries and other community initiatives, and great work done by The National Literary Trust. But on an every day basis we can lead by example, and promote reading in our own home and community. You can find lots of tips for encouraging kids to read for pleasure here. Don't forget to check out the full research and great work done by The National Literacy Trust, and to follow and support campaigns like #LibrariesForPrimaries and #GrowAGenerationOfReaders, or charities like BookTrust, where you'll also find lots of great tips and ideas.
