#KeepKidsReading

I am passionate about children’s literacy

Most children love being read to when they are young and then embrace reading as a new found super-power when they begin to learn during the early years of school. Many primary schools schedule in ‘carpet time’ or ‘story time’ because the importance of books in a young child’s life is well understood.

And then something happens when they go to secondary school

Whether it is the step-up to a more academic syllabus, or the usually quite sudden need for children to begin to take personal responsibility for their learning, or perhaps just the wider range of things available to absorb their time and the reduced parental supervision. Either way, many children reduce the time they spend on reading for pleasure, or worse, stop doing so altogether. This is a tragedy.

A book is one of the best gifts you can give a child

Fostering a love of reading in young people by keeping them reading in those difficult early years of secondary school and the teenage years can help to ingrain a habit that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.