Reading: task or pleasure?

Published: August 20th, 2025

Reading – task or pleasure? A post by Alison Tarrant, CEO of the School Library Association, quotes some interesting research: that 50% of 3/4 years olds, 41% of 5/7 year olds and only 22% of 8/10 year olds read every day, or almost, at home. A gradual decrease in reading habit. Tarrant also reports that out of 4000 researched parents, 65% tended to recommend books that they had read when they were younger. What would I recommend: Heidi? Little Women? Oh, dear. I too am in the ‘must do better’ category. 

Reading during my younger years was not a task – but a pleasure. It was an adventure to climb inside books and lose myself in the characters’ stories; to go where they went, fly along on their magic carpets and live their experiences. Not only were the children of my generation taught to read well, but the act of Reading, with a capital R, was a culture that grew alongside us, and stayed as we became adult. In essence, most of my generation have probably remained as regular readers throughout adulthood, as I have. Would my active brain wither and die without my books? Yes! Definitely!

So what has happened? Is it really technology and the instant movement of screens that has placed reading further to the back of our children’s choices of engagement? Or is it that we, as adults, are not including Reading as part of our human culture any more? Do we need to set more of an example; to demonstrate for our children both the power and pleasure of books? Do classrooms use books for learning purposes – or has technology mainly taken over in lessons? Do parents set good examples, by talking to children about their reading pleasures? I do not have answers to these questions, but they need to be asked by all of us. Teachers, parents, librarians – we all need to bring Reading from books back to the forefront of our language and literacy engagement. 

My latest book, ‘Becoming A Reader’ (Sylvia Edwards, Amazon), came about and developed as I was researching the third edition of ‘The SENCO Survival Guide’ (Routledge), while working in a primary and a secondary school, to support their reading endeavours. As a literacy specialist over many years, that important work inspired my passion to get children back to reading; as fully accomplished readers who also comprehend deeply and are therefore able to reflect on the words and sentences they have read, absorbed – and hopefully enjoyed.

So, let’s make reading not just a task – but a source of joy and pleasure for every child. Let’s make their Reading journey truly magic.

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