Is Storytime key to inspiring reading for pleasure?

How can we inspire every child to love reading for pleasure during the National Year of Reading? ReadingZone asked Alison David, consumer insight director at HarperCollins Children's Books and Farshore, what research into reading aloud to children - at school and at home - has shown. 

Alison David has been researching what it takes to inspire children to read since 2012. Her ground-breaking studies include The Reading Magic Project, Stories and Choices, The Lockdown Reading Club, Dads Reading, Storytime in School and Social Reading Spaces.

Inspiring children to read for pleasure in the National Year of Reading

Children who read for pleasure (they choose to read because they want to, not because they have to) do better in all subjects, even maths: it helps them to reach their full potential. And children who read for pleasure are happier and have better mental health, they have good vocabulary, can communicate well and develop empathy and understanding. It is both sad and serious that many children are not choosing to read and are missing out on all these wonderful benefits.

What's the problem?

Most children's predominant experience of reading is as a skill they must learn. Reading lessons, being tested and assigned levels and reading homework all mean reading is something which they can do well or do badly. Reading becomes thought of as a task that they must do. Many children don't find reading easy (40% of 5-10s) and don't think books are ‘cool' (37% of 5-10s). It's not a surprise that when they have free time, they don't choose to read. (figures from NielsenIQ BookData's ‘Understanding the Children's Book Consumer' 2025)

When they do have free time, digital entertainment is the first choice for most children. There are so many great things about technology, but as the saying goes, ‘you can have too much of a good thing', and it can seem that every free moment is filled with something on a screen. Technology has changed children's childhood, attention spans are short (43% of 5-10s don't have the attention span for reading books), and where reading might have naturally and organically found a valued place in childhood in the past, children now need sustained support to get a reading habit.

What's the solution?

Children need help to feel that reading is 'for them' - relevant to their lives, interesting, exciting and fun - and there are many things that contribute to having this feeling including having access to books, then having breadth of choice, perfect book recommendations, free choice of what and when to read, no pressure and positive reading role models (parents, friends, class mates, teachers, even celebrities). To encourage children to read we also need to create pressure-free experiences that are separate from reading instruction, evaluation and homework. I'm going to focus on one simple action that is transformative in homes and in schools, that is, reading aloud to children.

Reading aloud

When children are read to, their negative ideas about reading disappear. This is because it is the most wonderful pressure-free and fun experience. It feels like a treat, not a task. Simply, children enjoy it so much that they become motivated to try it out for themselves.

At Home

Parents can make a fundamental difference to children's interest in reading, by reading aloud to them, just for enjoyment, as near to every day as is possible. Reading frequently is very important because this is how habits form and how reading becomes embedded in family life so that it is a natural and routine pastime; reading becomes ‘what we do' as a family, with no stress, fuss and fanfare, just the joy of shared time with books and stories. Children love having their parents time and focused attention, they revel in the experience, in laughing together, sharing excitement and the anticipation of a story: it makes for supercharged bonding. When they are read to, children feel safe, secure and wrapped up in love. They make positive associations with reading and, when they are ready, this leads them to read themselves.

Children who are read to daily at home are significantly more likely to also read independently every day:
• Ages 5-7: 59% read daily when read to daily vs. 10% among those who are read to monthly or less (6x more likely)
• Ages 8-11: 60% read daily when read to daily vs. 20% among those who are read to monthly or less (3x more likely)

So this works! Of course, the snag is hectic daily life. Parents are busy and time poor, tired and pulled in multiple directions, not least ensuring homework is done. But if the focus is on children's reading homework, progress and levels to the exclusion of reading for pleasure, we inadvertently turn reading into nothing but a chore for them.

The great thing is, once parents get into a reading aloud routine it becomes a total joy. It's a relaxing cuddly time of day which has obvious benefits for their child and many parents who have tried it out have commented on how much happiness it brings them.

Children need to be read to throughout childhood. As they get older and become, bit by bit, more enthusiastic about reading themselves, sharing the reading (only when they want to) can also be highly enjoyable for them. For example, some children like to read a paragraph or two, or a page or two, and then have mum or dad carry on. A great strategy is to read aloud to your child and then to offer them a choice – say goodnight, or delay saying goodnight for 10 or 15 minutes if they'd like to read themselves. Most children choose extra independent reading every time!

If we stop reading to children once they can read independently, we are setting them loose from their reading moorings. Children are very easily distracted by technology and often negatively affected by the instructional approach to reading in school. They need the reading routine to help them embed a positive attitude to reading and maintain a personal reading for pleasure habit. The longer we can keep it going, the better!

At school

Reading aloud to children in school is equally impactful. Through our Storytime in School trial we wanted to find out what would happen if children were read to at school for 20 minutes every day, just for fun and relaxation. For one term, 20 schools, 3000 children aged 7-10, and 86 teachers tried it out.

It was a huge success. Children loved the experience; they bonded over the stories and had fun (so much so that several teachers said children would cheer when it was Storytime). Teachers reported that children had better concentration, they chose to read more independently, and that they read a wider range of books. They also observed greater confidence in the children and high levels of wellbeing.

We found that children's reading ages and comprehension increased, as measured by the New Salford reading test. For example, the average reading age among Year 4s increased by just under 12 months, and 36% of the children gained more than 13 months in reading age over just one term. Again, in Year 4 all schools increased their average comprehension scores, and we saw a shift towards excellence. At the start of the trial, 49% of the children were well above average/ excellent in comprehension, and at the end (after one term) this had risen to 60%. There were considerable differences among the schools, and some had quite astonishing results:
• School A. 31% Pupil Premium/69% EAL: 29% 'excellent' comprehension at start, rising to 61% 'excellent' at end
• School B. 59% Pupil Premium: 4% ‘excellent' at start, rising to 52% 'excellent' at end

At the end of the trial term, 77% of the children wanted Storytime to continue. It was a highly effective way to change the atmosphere around reading from a task to a treat. Children were very enthusiastic and this comment from a girl in Year 5 is typical of the feedback we received: It has made me like books a lot more and I feel like if we don't carry then I will go back to hate reading. Also I feel like it has made a lot of people in my class like reading.

Reading aloud to children at school takes the pressure off, it's a fun and social experience, it makes books, stories and reading enjoyable, and boosts children's engagement. It's a low-cost and high impact solution.
The key to success is reading often in both the home and school setting; frequently reading aloud to children is key to success. At home, it's better to read to children for just 10 minutes every day than wait until the weekend for a longer session. At school, the same principle applies: daily or near-daily sessions are pivotal. Teachers talked about how children's enthusiasm would drop if a day was missed. When Storytime was daily, children's excitement and engagement was maintained, the routine meant they looked forward to it, and the regularity meant the story didn't lose momentum.

Take the leap and commit to frequently reading aloud

2026 is the UK's National Year of Reading and what better time than now to take the leap and commit to reading to children frequently. It makes space and time for reading and takes the pressure off. Children relax and respond very positively: it is a catalyst for children's own reading development.

In the school setting, daily Storytime is highly social, and children benefit from feeling connected and part of a group. At home, feeling loved, safe and secure when mum or dad read aloud brings great joy. In both cases, these positive feelings become associated with reading and books. This creates a lasting, positive relationship with reading that motivates children to choose books for pleasure.