The Independent has reported on a survey of children by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) which found watching television has decreased in popularity as a pastime among nine to 11-year-olds for the first time in years.
The survey of 4,500 children showed that only 55% of children preferred watching TV to reading, compared with 62% in a similar survey four years ago. It also found that the decline in popularity of reading has been halted, with nearly 70% of nine-year-olds and 60% of 11-year-olds saying they enjoy reading stories.
The survey also found that comics were children’s favourite form of reading, overtaking stories for the first time. The report concludes that there can be ‘cautious optimism’ over the survey’s findings and that government encouragement of more flexibility and creativity in the curriculum could have helped foster more of a love of reading.
The full report, Attitudes to Reading at Ages Nine and Eleven (Research Summary) is available at www.nfer.ac.uk.
(Independent, 6 March 2008)
Parents may want Paradise Lost and Wuthering Heights to top
their children's reading lists, but teenagers have a rather
different idea. A survey shows they would prefer to secretly
pore over the Kama Sutra, glamour model Jordan's autobiography
and Bridget Jones's Diary. Mothers and fathers may also be
alarmed to discover their children are prone to reading How
to cope with your parents and Junk, a novel about heroin addiction
by Melvin Burgess.
The poll of 100,000 11 to 16-year-olds by publisher A&C
Black contrasts sharply with the research produced by the
Royal Society of Literature. The Royal Society asked writers
to suggest the books they thought children should have read
by the time they left school. Andrew Motion, poet laureate,
chose Paradise Lost, Ulysses and Don Quioxte, while among
J.K.Rowling's suggestions were Wuthering Heights and To Kill
a Mockingbird. Novelist Ben Okri contributed a ten-point list
instead of ranking must-read books. His advice to children
included: "Read the books your parents hate."
The books that children cannot put down:
Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
Alex Rider series, Anthony Horowitz
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket
The Lord of The Rings trilogy, JRR Tolkien
The Saga of Darren Shan series, Darren Shan
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
The Diamond Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
A Child Called 'it', Dave Pelzer
Girl 15, Charming But Insane, Sue Limb
Holes, Louis Sachar
And the books they hide from their parents:
Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
Girls in Love, Jacqueline Wilson
A Child Called it, Dave Pelzer
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
Junk, Melvin Burgess
Coping with Parents, Peter Corey
Kama Sutra, Sage Vatsyayana
Bumface, Morris Gleitzman
Forever, Judy Blume
Being Jordan, Katie Price
(Daily Mail, 2 February 2006)
According to a Tesco study that asked 2,600 parents about
their children's reading habits, the perception that children
spend their lives glued to a computer screen is either a myth
or a huge exaggeration. About 40% of parents think their children
read more than they did at the same age, which has given rise
to the phenomenon of "crossovers" - books that children
recommend to parents. The most famous example of a crossover
is Harry Potter; others listed in Tesco's top 10 include Holes
by Louis Sachar.
Caroline Ridding, the book buyer for Tesco, said, "Contrary
to popular belief, children read more today than ever before.
Far from being obsessed with TV and computer games, our study
show their love of reading is greater than ever."
The most popular children-to-parent children titles were:
1. Harry Potter (books 1-5), JK Rowling
2. Adrian Mole series, Sue Townsend
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark
Haddon
4. His Dark Materials (1-4), Philip Pullman
5. Holes, Louis Sachar
6. A Series of Unfortunate Events (1-11), Lemony Snicket
7. Sophie's World, Jostein Haarder
8. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
9. Junk, Melvin Burgess
10. The Scarecrow and his Servant, Philip Pullman
The most recommended parent-to-child titles were:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
2. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein
3. The Borrowers, Mary Norton
4. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein
5. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
7. Famous Five series, Enid Blyton
8. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
9. Mallory Towers series, Enid Blyton
10. Heidi, Joanna Spryi
(Telegraph, 21 February 2005)
Basic facts about creative reading:
- Library services to young people are provided through
a national network of 4,132 library sites; 656 mobile libraries
plus 16,903 other service points in prisons, hospitals,
hostels and other non-library settings (CIPFA)
- There are 24 million children's books in the public library
service (CIPFA)
- Public libraries lend 360.7 million books every year,
89.2 million of these are children's (CIPFA)
Libraries spend £17.3 million on children's books
(CIPFA)
- Around 1 in 4 resident children (between the ages of
0-14) are estimated to be active borrowers (LISU)
- 3.5 million children's books were purchased during 2002-03
(LISU)
- 92% of public libraries offer internet access to children
and young people (LISU)
- 49% of all parents use the library every week (Audit
Commission)
- The best-selling children's author Jacqueline Wilson
is the most borrowed author in libraries (Public Lending
Right)
Below are the results of Nestle Family Monitor: Young People's
Attitudes towards Reading conducted by Mori. The results are
based on questionnaires completed by over 900 11 to 18-year-olds
at 33 state and independent schools and sixth form colleges
between March and May 2003.
Do teenagers read?
- 83% read in spare time
- 11% never read outside of school hours (these students
were more likely to come from a home where neither parent
or guardian worked)
- 16% boys never read in their spare time compared to only
7% girls
- those who didn't read at all in their spare time were
much less likely to email
- 26% described reading as boring
- boys and those at state school were significantly more
likely to say that they didn't enjoy reading.
What makes young people want to read?
- 43% will read something as a result of a peer recommendation
- 10% will read something if it is recommended by a teacher,
whereas a quarter of students were keen to read a book about
a film they enjoyed
- 23% said they would read a book about a famous person
they were interested in or a hobby (this figure was higher
for boys)
- time was reported as the biggest barrier to reading, and
1 in 5 said they would read more if they knew what to read
- age 13/14 was the key age where an interest in reading
dwindled
- 70% said they would prefer to watch TV or a DVD than read
a book
- girls were more enthusiastic on the whole about reading
than boys
- boys were "significantly more likely than girls to
say that they are encouraged to read if the book is about
a place, subject or hobby in which they are interested."
(Nestle Family Monitor Number 17, published November 2003)
Boys run the risk of lagging even further behind girls in
literacy, after a survey showed their enjoyment of reading
is declining. A study of 74 schools by the National Foundation
for Educational Research found that fewer youngsters now believe
that reading is difficult, compared with 10 years ago. However,
there is a substantial decrease in pupils reading for pleasure.
The researchers say the national literacy strategy may be
to blame.
65% of 9-year-olds and 73% of 11-year-olds said they did
not think reading was difficult, compared with 56% and 62%
respectively in 1998. Just over 7 out of 10 of the younger
age group enjoy reading as a pastime, compared with 78% five
years ago, while for 11-year-olds, the proportion has declined
from 77% to 65%. Children said they preferred watching television
to going to the library or reading. But the biggest changes
in attitudes were among boys. In Year 6, only 55% of boys
said they enjoyed stories compared with 70% in 1998. Among
girls, there was a 10-point decline, from 85% to 75%.
Marian Sainsbury, NFER principal researcher, who conducted
both surveys, said: "The children who were surveyed in
2003 were the first to have received five years of teaching
according to the national literacy strategy. The 1998 survey
was carried out the term before the strategy was introduced
nationally."
But she added: "On the other hand, enjoyment levels
have declined. We have no direct evidence from this survey
of the reasons for the change, but it is possible this is
also related to the drive to improve standards. "Children
are learning skills and reading material that has usually
been chosen by the teacher rather than themselves. There may
have been less emphasis on the sheer pleasure to be gained
from books."
Dr Sainsbury said similar surveys would be carried out every
two years to monitor attitudes to reading among pupils. A
separate study released by the Schools Health Education Unit
in Exeter, in October, found that the proportion of 10-year-old
boys who read books at home nearly halved during the first
five years of the national literacy strategy. The report said
that the percentage of Year 6 boys who read during dinner-time,
play-time, or in the evening has dropped from 29% in 1997
to 17% in 2002.
(TES, 5 December 2003)
Report published by Children's Books Ireland, June 2002.
In autumn 2001, Children's Books Ireland carried out the
first, large-scale comprehensive survey of the leisure time
reading choices of children throughout Ireland, north and
south. Over 2,200 children aged between seven and 16, from
62 different schools - both large urban and small rural -
took part.
The young people were asked about their favourite books
and writers, their favourite comics and magazines and their
favourite genres. They were asked to describe their enjoyment
they get from reading and the factors which help them decide
what to read, and about their views on their school and local
libraries.
Findings
Unsurprisingly, younger children enjoy reading books more
than young adults, and girls enjoy reading more then boys.
Both sexes and all ages get great enjoyment from periodicals,
especially teen magazines.
The amount of book reading declines very considerably with
age and varies substantially between girls and boys. Primary-age
girls read the most, followed by primary-age boys, post-primary
girls and post-primary boys. Among primary pupils, although
girls read more books than boys, the age decline is more apparent
with girls than than with boys. In post-primary pupils, while
again, the girls read more books than the boys, the age decline
is greater with the boys.
For both groups of young people, the Harry Potter books
easily dominated the recently read books and are the favourite
books with both primary and post-primary children. In the
primary children this is particularly evident, with the Goosebumps
series a remote second. Roald Dahl and JK Rowling occupy first
and second place respectively as the favourite authors in
both primary and post-primary lists.
The most popular genre with both groups of children was
humour. With post-primary pupils this was followed by horror,
adventure and modern, true-life fiction. With primary children
other popular genres were adventure, mystery, animal and scary
stories.
With the primary children, the three most popular periodicals
were Beano, Sabrina and Smash Hits. With post-primary pupils,
they were Sugar, J17 and Bliss.
With primary children the major influence in helping them
to choose a book is that the name of the book sounds interesting.
With post-primary children, the most important factor was
the recommendation of a friend. With both groups, the lowest
ranked factor was the recommendation of an adult such as a
teacher, parent or librarian.
At primary level, patterns of book ownership were very similar
for boys and girls. However, at post-primary level girls reported
themselves as owning substantially more books than boys. Primary
school children were more likely to perceive that their homes
had 'a lot' of books compared to post-primary children. For
both groups, there were strong associations between books
in the home, books owned by children and whether or not they
liked to read books.
Overall, primary school children thought well of their school
library in terms of its having the kinds of books they
liked to read. In general, girls and younger primary children
were more satisfied than boys and older primary children.
By post-primary level, the majority of children rated their
school library as poor or very poor at having the kind of
books they liked to read. Again, the girls and younger primary
pupils were more positive than boys and older primary pupils.
At both primary and post-primary levels, young people in Northern
Ireland were more positive about their school library than
those from the Republic of Ireland.
Primary-age girls were most likely to visit their local
library, followed by primary-age boys, post-primary girls
and post-primary boys. Post-primary girls had more positive
opinions of the books in library than post-primary boys. There
was no substantial difference in the views of post-primary
pupils in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Girls of all ages were more likely than boys to buy books
for themselves. They were also more likely to be given books.
The pattern of buying periodical was similar for primary boys
and girls. At post-primary level, girls were much more likely
to buy periodicals for themselves.
The vast majority of those interviewed enjoyed reading of
some kind, whether it be books, comics, magazines or newspapers.
This information is taken from the report's executive summary.
The full report is available for 30 euros. Contact Children's
Books Ireland, 17 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Tel: 00 35 31 872 5854. Email: childrensbooksire@eircom.net.
Barely one in 20 readers of comics now is female because
of a growing divide between the sexes and an explosion in
demand for sex-obsessed girls' magazines, according to phd
research by Mel Gibson, a media studies lecturer at Sunderland
University. She examined the cultural shift that has led to
a collapse in the market for girls' comics. In the space of
a generation, girls have deserted the cosy certainties of
Bunty and Jackie for the more strident Bliss and More; homely
adventures have been replaced by make-up tips and "Position
of the Fortnight".
Until the late 1970s. girls' reading was still dominated
by comics in which heroines spent their time righting wrongs
during the course of a series of jolly adventures.
In the 1980s a new style of magazine evolved to tap into the
growing spending power of teens and pre-teens. These magazines
were filled with tips on make-up, and pictures of pop and
television stars, with little in the way of stories.
(Guardian, 14 August 2001)
Children's Reading Choices by Dr Christine Hall and
Martin Coles, a survey of nearly 8,000 children by researchers
at Nottingham University found that on average, children surveyed
in 1994-5 had read 2.52 books each in the month before the
survey, compared with 2.39 in 1971. Only among 14-year-old
boys has the amount of reading declined. Martin Coles said,
that "a lot of classics are being read: one in six among our
top 200 is what most adults would consider a classic, often
connected with a TV series".
Over the last two decades reported book reading has increased
for 10-year-olds of both sexes and for 12-year-old girls.
It has remained at the same level for 12-year-old boys and
for 14-year-old girls. It has declined for 14-year-old boys.
The average number of books reported as having been read by
children in the four weeks prior to being surveyed was 2.52
which compares with a figure of 2.40 in 1971. Children who
read most watch least television.
(Source: Building on Children's Reading Choices by Martin
Coles and Christine Hall in Building a Literate Nation, National Literacy Trust, 1997)
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