7 ms·
Children and young people's reading in 2025
- spacebanana7 1y agoThere’s been a tragic drop off in the quality of children’s books in the past decade or so. Of course they can go back to the classics or read stuff from the 2000s but those often lack connection to contemporary culture.
- lemming 1y agoOur daughter is 11 and is a voracious reader. This isn’t my experience at all. We read daily to her until she didn’t want us to any more a year or so ago. But we never had any trouble finding good books, some new and some older. I really love kids books of all sorts - especially the illustrated ones are real works of art.
- watwut 1y agoYeah, we did not had any issue finding good book either. Good kids books exist and are easy to find. The kids not reading is not caused by books not existing. Books are not culturally relevant anymore, not for adults and not for children.
- joenot443 1y agoDo you have a son? Does he read as much? Some parents I know have suggested it's much, much easier to find newer books which interest daughters than books which might interest their son. They asked me to find some newer books he might find interesting. Does anyone have suggestions on 2020s books aimed at adolescent boys? Ideally ones more focused on the real experience of boyhood, I think he'd be less interested in ones focused making adult commentary on social or identity topics.
- prawn 1y agoI have both (10-13ish) and both read almost constantly. Our son is the older one, read early and also very quickly, and that's set a tone for his siblings who now read a lot as well. Neither in that 10-13 age bracket above has trouble finding novels they enjoy from fantasy or adventure settings. There was an earlier period where we asked friends' teenagers to suggest book series, but these days our children seem to find their own novels during library sessions incorporated into their schooling.
- technothrasher 1y agoYeah, although my son had trouble learning to read and wasn't really reading at grade level until the end of second grade, by the time he was ten he was reading all kinds of different books that interested him without needing our suggestions. He did read some "young reader" books, but also read a lot of classic adult novels.
- figers 1y agoI have daughters that love nancy drew novels, read to them before bed, currently on book 28. for a boy the Hardy boys is the equivalent.. Also depends on the age but other good ones are: Artemis Fowl Alex Rider Berenstain Bears
- metaketra 1y agoI would recommend the website Royalroad https://www.royalroad.com/home https://www.royalroad.com/home. It has a ton of stories by amateur authors. They're not enriching, deep, or social commentary. It's a modern version of pulp magazines, in the vein of Conan the Barbarian with worse writing, but in the end those were published in a paid magazine, while this is a free website accessible to all. While they're not high quality, with a couple of exceptions, they're very fun to read, and in my opinion, while you can spend your time reading only high quality books, it's nice to just have what is essentially the fast food of fiction as well. Reading is a habit, and creating it by focusing on something like this, can still allow you to read something with depth and quality later on. There's a big market for this for girls and for women in any book store, but for the most part, you can't find the same for men. If you want specific recommendations you can check around /r/rational on reddit, since they tend to cover some of the better stories from that site.
- b_t_s 1y agoI think this is probably very genre specific. I suspect the nonfiction and realistic fiction boy/manly/macho genres(outdoors, machines, fighting, and the like) may have been especially cannibalized by games/video. I don't recall seeing any of this stuff on my last trip to a physical bookstore. But on the fantasy/geeky side there are more great options than there have ever been, and, as a girldad, I can tell you that female main characters are tough to find.
- ordord00 1y agoI have a 12 year old daughter and 10 year old son. My daughter has been reading voraciously since about 9 years old. This past summer she plowed through several 800-1000 page books. My son is not nearly as voracious as she is, but has, in the past 6 months started to really value his reading time, enough that he gets upset when things interfere with it. Also, he now goes out and researches books to read (often via YouTube during his Youtube time). I think what got him here was consistency. We've read to them every night until they were in second grade and then required them to read overnight. It took a while to take hold with both, but once it did they dove in and now really value it. As for what he is reading - Diary of a wimpy kid series, Percy Jackson, Mysterious Benedict Society are the current favorites.
- nickd2001 1y agoThese are fairly current: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rider. Aimed at teenage boys although I only know about them cos our daughter loved 'em.
- squigz 1y agoOh goodness Alex Rider is still going? I was reading those 20 years ago haha
- HankStallone 1y agoA mother I know said the same thing about reading assignments at school, that they're all for girls now. Having a female protagonist doesn't necessarily mean boys can't enjoy a book, of course. I (a boy) enjoyed Nancy Drew just as much as The Hardy Boys when I was young. But I suspect modern writings with girl protagonists are more focused on targeting girls than on making good stories that happen to feature girls, and may not be as universally enjoyable.
- lemming 1y agoNo, we just have the one daughter. But I was a boy, and I loved reading too. I don't remember needing books to mirror my experience, in fact I probably preferred books which didn't since I mostly found my own experience fairly boring! Some recent-ish off-the-beaten track suggestions that our daughter really liked that might be appealing to boys: 1. The Unknown Adventurer books (https://www.theunknownadventurer.com https://www.theunknownadventurer.com): beautifully illustrated, Journey to the Last River is wonderful. We have the Lost Book of Adventure too, but our daughter didn't enjoy that one as much, I think that one would appeal more to boys. Looking at the page I see they have a third, I'll have to pick that up. 2. Almost anything by David Almond, although his young adult stuff tends to blend into his adult work and not all of it is appropriate/interesting depending on reading/maturity level. Plenty of male protagonists, mostly universal themes, some quite strange. I'd recommend reading them first to get an idea if they'd be good for your kid, I loved them. His first book Skellig is probably a good place to start just to see if you like the style or not, although they're all quite different from each other. 3. We really liked A Wish in the Dark, by Christina Soontornvat. Some social commentary but also a great story in an interesting world: https://soontornvat.com/books/a-wish-in-the-dark/ https://soontornvat.com/books/a-wish-in-the-dark/. I also highly highly recommend All Thirteen, the non-fiction story of the Thai cave rescue, absolutely amazing story: https://soontornvat.com/books/all-thirteen/ https://soontornvat.com/books/all-thirteen/. 4. The Orphans of the Tide series by Struan Murray are great adventure/fantasy stories, if occasionally a little dark for younger kids. We got distracted before getting to the last one in the series, but the first two were good. I can't help so much with stories specifically for boys, but generally I find that just focusing on high-quality, well written books of any stripe are a good bet. If you have a good bookshop nearby, go and find the helpful person - they can help steer you. And buy books from them so they stick around :-)
- squigz 1y agoIsn't 2020s a pretty steep cutoff? I understand these stories shouldn't be too cut off from the current culture, but surely 10-15 years in the past is still fine? Even older, surely; 2 of the novels that stick out in my own childhood ('Bridge to Terabithia' and 'Where The Red Fern Grows') were decades before me.
- footy 1y agoI've been thinking about this a bit lately, because my sister has a son I'd like to share some of my favourite Goosebumps books from the 90s with. I think they'd still be fun reads for a 7-10 year old, but I wonder how much the world depicted in them would make sense for my nephew.
- bkandel 1y agoI think it's just always hard to find stuff you like, and time is a great filter. There are tons of new series that my sons like: the whole Percy Jackson world, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Lemony Snicket, Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, etc. Lots of books out there!
- lucb1e 1y agoWhat makes you think all authors have suddenly unlearned how to write "quality" children's books?
- nickd2001 1y agoFantasy kids books, e:g Tolkien, CS Lewis (Narnia), Joan Aiken, Edith Nesbit are timeless though right? Then there are books set in a different time, that kids still enjoy e:g Just William series 1920-60 (which contains some stereotypes about race or gender roles which can actually lead to a healthy discussion about to what extent we've moved on and "don't say those sorts of things" nowadays) . So, books set in the current decade are great but kids can have a lot of fun reading older stuff if that isn't available. Ours read quite a mix of old and new.
- graemep 1y agoI think there is a lot going on that contributes to this. 1. Adults read less, so children see their parents reading less often (it at all!) so do not grow up thinking it is a fun thing to do. I love reading because my parents did, and my kids do because I do. 2. Schools do not make reading enjoyable. A teacher I know suggested that their school did somethings to make reading fun, and the management refused because it improve any of their metrics. A friend of by daughter's went to a school where there were times when they had to sit and read a book - nothing kills enjoyment better than being forced to do something. You are telling kids its a chore you have to do, not something done for fun. There are other things do. There are schools that teach Shakespeare for English literature GCSE without giving them the whole text, and without watching a video of the play, let along going to the theatre. 3. There are fewer and smaller local libraries so kids cannot discover what they like as easily. There are fewer bookshops too, because people read less.
- squigz 1y ago> A friend of by daughter's went to a school where there were times when they had to sit and read a book - nothing kills enjoyment better than being forced to do something. You are telling kids its a chore you have to do, not something done for fun. This is, I think, a tricky line to walk. Reading is, like most things, a skill that must be practiced, and school is a good place to do so. I think a bigger part of this practice that kills enjoyment is not being able to choose what you're reading; of course kids are going to dislike reading when they're forced to read books or stories they have no interest in at all.
- graemep 1y agoThey need to learn to read but not told "you must read" even if they have a choice. My kids learned to read with me (flashcards, Ladybird books) for fun (flashcards were a game), and then just carried on by themselves by picking up interesting books (which relies on having access to interesting books - having books at home makes a huge difference, as does access to libraries and bookshops)
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- kqr 1y agoGiven what children claim motivates them to read it sounds like well-written text adventures would do wonders for literacy. But I suspect that would not be that easy. I think both books and text adventures would be competing against activities with much lower requirements on effort, and much higher immediate rewards.
- elevaet 1y agoWith my own kids what has worked is setting aside time, before bed where they _have to read_. It can be anything they want, they pick books from library most of the time. The risk of this approach might be that it could suck the fun out of it making it a chore, but that has not been the case - they both like to read books now. Creating that space for reading has been essential. It's impossible to compete against all of the other things otherwise.
- ordord00 1y agoThis is the way. My son (10) went from actively trying to do anything else while he was supposed to be reading, to actually settling down and reading continuously for at least 30 minutes every night. We've had the rule since he was 6, but it seems like in the last year he has flipped from not being that interested to now highly valuing it and being upset if something impinges on his reading time... which of course we will extend bed time a bit to ensure he gets his reading time.
- kqr 1y agoIndeed. When I was young I had a mandatory bedtime that was slightly before I got tired, and not having many alternatives I ended up using it for reading. I suppose these days electronics would have to stay outside the room for it to work.
- tialaramex 1y agoBecause this is UK focused it assumes you'll know that FSM = Free School Meal which is a proxy for household poverty. People who've seen this kind of work in other fields will recognise such proxies and probably assumed that's what is going on, but just in case.
- Freak_NL 1y agoIt's an academic paper, so if written correctly it does not make that assumption (about the domain-specific abbreviation at least). Instead, the abbreviation will be written out in full at the first use, and it is: > Slightly more children and young people who didn’t receive free school meals (FSMs) told us they enjoyed reading compared with their peers who received FSMs
- dmichulke 1y agoTo reinforce, it doesn't mean Finite State Machine or Flying Spaghetti Monster
- roenxi 1y agoThese stats are hard to interpret - this could all very well be consistent with the kids these days turning out to be the most literate generation in history. There is very strong incentive to get good at reading to interact with the internet even if it isn't reading for 'enjoyment'. There is a linked PDF, but I'd actually be more interested in reading the original survey to see how 'reading' is being framed. Is an hour in the HN comments section counted as reading for fun?
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- wccrawford 1y agoWhat does "they read something daily in their free time in 2025" actually mean? I think it means actual books. I think it excludes forums, discord chats, and general online stuff. Kids are forced to read more than ever before to interact with their peers. The rise of sites like Web Novel and Royal Road are inspirational. I would guess that there are more "writers" than ever before in history.
- hennell 1y agoThe PDF report covers the difference between print and screen reading around page 27, I think their daily reading must be content available in print and screen but it is not clearly defined. That section does show that 2/3rds of screen reading though is direct messages, social media, and text in video games. Blogs and forums only hit 1/4. Kids might be forced to read more than ever before, but not all reading is the same, anymore than using a games console and iPad as a kid makes you fully computer literate.
- tolerance 1y agoI think what speaks to the core of today's young men runs counter to my impression of the kind of books being popularized. When I was younger and read fiction I had access to a fair amount of copies of young adult novels that would never be front-and-center at a bookstore or library. In fact I think that most of these books were the rejects from the main libraries in my town. Violence, abandonment, resent, regret abound! Many of it was senseless and the endings were not as neat and resolved as the schoolteacher led me to believe how all books ought to end. I’m not recommending this experience. But young men do need author[itie]s to guide them through the discomforting aspects of their lives in an un-fantastic fashion.
- embeng4096 1y ago+1 to your point about the type of books being popularized. I grew up obsessively rereading Redwall, Pendragon, RA Salvatore’s stuff, Ranger’s Apprentice, Enders Game, Tyrant of Jupiter, Maze Runner. Like you said, the me of now can’t recommend things like Tyrant, but still I can’t imagine that would have appealed to any of the girls I knew at that time, let alone the young women of today. By the same token, although I read Twilight and Hunger Games, I never was obsessed like the girls in my classes were. I can’t imagine that boys today are particularly interested in A Court Of Thorns and Roses and the other spiritual successors of Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight, etc.
- watwut 1y ago> I can’t imagine that would have appealed to any of the girls I knew at that time, let alone the young women of today. That is just you being sexist tho.
- throawaywpg 1y agoI was alive in that time and girls did not like those books, at all (of course WOMEN may be a different story). They liked Harry Potter, and LOTR after the movies came out because Orlando Bloom.
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- hodgehog11 1y agoDoes this consider audiobooks? Personally, I have been reading fewer physical books and have preferred to listen to them instead. This comes as my eyesight deteriorates, but I can imagine that for others, listening to books over audio can be a more pleasant experience.
- lucb1e 1y agoI don't know the answer to your question, but whether this is a solution depends on your focus: if you want young people to be able to read properly (locate and ingest information quickly) then audio books are not going to solve that. If the focus is reading enjoyment then sure. Could also watch a video and be perfectly entertained
- hodgehog11 1y agoNo, it isn't a solution, but at least young people would be ingesting literature, which I would argue is a far cry better than the brainrot YouTube videos targeting kids. That's an assessment of the status quo though, we should absolutely encourage more physical reading as an essential skill.
- lucb1e 1y ago> Just 1 in 3 (32.7%) [of] children and young people [...] a 36% decrease So was it half of the kids before or two thirds? 51.1% - 36% = 32.7% 68.7% - 36%. = 32.7% I know it doesn't really matter but this sort of wording does make me curious Since they do use "percentage points" further down, presumably it was 51% in 2005
- jermberj 1y agoI'd wager it's the first (51.1%). Mostly because I simply cannot imagine that nearly 70% of kids in 2005 enjoyed reading. That seems too high. Based on..? My vibes.
- recursivecaveat 1y agoI have to stop people from doing this in presentations all the time lol. Just say "Runtime decreased from 117s to 34". It is really easy to mentally compare two numbers; it is much harder to start with "Runtime decreased by 71% to 34s" and find the old value. Equally brief, never any ambiguity, easier on the mind, and no weird explosions as you approach zero.
- welfare 1y agoI disagree that literacy is all about reading fictional books and I wish we could broaden it a little bit more, even at school. This might be an odd take, but I never liked reading books and have read very few books in my whole life. I do love to read news articles, forum posts, magazines etc. because the format fits me. Judging myself by my education level and career I'd say I did just fine without opening a single book.
- squishington 1y agoI enjoyed reading fiction until I studied electrical engineering. After that I felt that fiction was a waste of time. On a cognitive level I don't think it is, but I think the feeling comes from having been instilled with a sense that reading has to involve some degree of learning. As though everything I do has to involve some self betterment. It's frustrating and I feel a sense of loss about it.
- BrenBarn 1y agoWe're in for a rough ride as a species.
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