Children turning off TV to read instead

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)

What teens really read

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)

Creative reading in libraries - statistics from the Reading Agency

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)
  

Young People's Attitudes towards Reading

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 say reading is now less fun

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)

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. 

Girls desert comics

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)

Family Reading Matters magazine