Children struggle to find books they like
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2017
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The latest Kids & Family Reading Report from Scholastic US shows that most children (86%) in the US agree on the importance of reading for pleasure - but struggle to find books that they like. Many will turn to teachers and librarians for help to find a reading book.
The report, which is based on a survey of 2,718 parents and children in the US, found that while most children agreed on the importance of reading for pleasure, the number who actually enjoy reading for pleasure is about 58%. Children's reading frequency has held steady since 2010, although there has been a slight decline in the number of children who read books for fun 57 days a week. The report also found that parents underestimate how hard it is for children to find books they like. While 29% of parents felt that their child has trouble finding books he/she liked, some 41% of kids felt this was a challenge, increasing to 57% among infrequent readers compared with 26% of frequent readers. Across ages, children turn to teachers or school librarians (51%), and friends, siblings or cousins (50%) to get the best ideas about books to read for fun, with social media most important among 1217 year-olds. The reported highlighted an increase in the number of parents reading aloud to infants before the age of one, with three-quarters of parents with children ages 05 (77%) say they started reading aloud to their child before age one. Some 40% - up from 30% in 2014 - said they began when their child was less than three months old. The frequency of reading aloud to young children has increased since 2014 among parents with kids ages 35 with 56% of parents reading to children aged 0-2 years (up from 52%) and 62% of parents reading to children aged 3-5 years (up from 55%). However, the frequency of reading aloud to children still drops significantly after age 5 from 62% to 38%, and again after age 8 from 38% to 17% for children aged 9-11 years. Some 87% of children aged 9-11 years said they still enjoyed being read to at this age. The report also looked at the availability of books to children at home and found that the average home with children ages 017 has 104 children's books. However, there are large disparities in the number of children's books in the home when considering children's reading frequency and household income: Children who are frequent readers have 141 children's books in their homes compared with 65 books for kids among infrequent readers' homes. Households with income less than $35,000 have an average of 69 children's books compared with 127 books for children in households with income more than $100,000. Parents of teenagers aged 1217 years are more likely than their children to look for characters that reflect diversity in children's books, although about one in 10 teeangers look for characters who are differently-abled (13%), are culturally or ethnically diverse (11%), and who break stereotypes (11%). The report also looked at children's favourite books and found that throughout the age groups, Harry Potter remains a favorite series among children ages 617; about four in 10 kids overall have read Harry Potter. Around one third of those said reading Harry Potter made them interested in reading other books. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson, Dork Diaries and Goosebumps were also popular among children aged 9-14 years. The full report can be read here:
