How to get more children reading?
What I've learned from ten years as a bookseller
Hello and welcome to Making Crime Pay! I’m Nicki Thornton - I’m an author. I share my creative journey here and what I am learning along the way. I pass on my love of books by sharing what I am reading and review them so you can enjoy them too. I visit schools and other places to encourage a love of reading and help writing be more fun!
My latest novel is The Floating Witch Mystery, about three determined children, an eccentric witch and the world’s best magical detective who will stop at nothing to save everything they love. If you would like to hear me read the opening chapter you can head here.
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Nicki
Now I wish the title of this piece could be:
Five easy ways to get children reading!
Because something I have supported for years is any initiatives to encourage more people to read for pleasure. And I think that starts with young people.
But I spent ten years talking to young people, their parents and working with schools (and I still work a lot with schools) and there is a decline in young people reading.
Celebrating World Book Day
So ahead of celebrating World Book Day this week (and joining in with a whole week of book events in schools and bookshops), here are my top tips that work.
1. Having access to books is perhaps the most obvious way to give children the opportunity to read. Sometimes I feel it’s worth reminding people you don’t even need to buy books. Schools are often great at letting children bring home books. There are public libraries. There is a BorrowBox app that lets you download free audio books onto your phone. This increases choice and means reading should be an inexpensive hobby.
2. Letting children read the books they want to is a really good idea, but sometimes choice can be overwhelming.
If you simply walk into a room full of books and ask someone to choose one that can be a challenge more than an opportunity.
There are experts available: in schools, or libraries, or visit a bookshop. Talking to someone with expert knowledge is a great way to find the sort of book anyone is likely to enjoy reading – and this does not only apply to children!
This is a list I have put together of books that I have recommended time and again. But lists never work as well as talking to individuals.
3. The very best way to encourage children to read is to give them time. We see words around us every day and once you can read, it feels like you cannot help reading. It is easy to forget that interpreting a load of squiggles on a page is actually hard work for the brain! And some people just take a lot longer than others to master it.
One of the fascinating facts I learned when I ran a bookshop is how many more dyslexics there are with English than in other languages. Not only are so many letters similar, so many words do not follow patterns that can be decoded, but can only be learned individually.
Learning to read is really hard! Be patient. Give it time and encouragement.
4. Reading is a skill like any other. The best way to get more skilled at reading is to practice. Practice little and often. Practice every day if you can. Ten minutes a day is perfect to build a reading habit.
5. For some people curling up with a book and letting the rest of the world go away is a treat. But not everyone.
Reading doesn’t have to be a lonely, shut-away activity.
Watching a film together and talking about the story afterwards is a totally different experience to watching a film alone. Reading as a group, or a family, shared listening to audio books, talking about books can make people see reading differently.
If you have a child who is struggling to read, keep on reading together even after you think they should be old enough to read alone.
Any other tips to share?
Thanks for reading
Nicki