**With apologies for cross-posting**
Report reveals young people's reading habits
Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket continue to woo today's youth, but
interest in reading declines as children age, according to a new
report.
Young People's Reading in 2005: The Second Study of Young People's
Reading Habits, describes a survey of what young people in England
are reading, and what they say their reading means to them.
The joint study by Sally Maynard, Sophie Mackay, Fiona Smyth and
Kimberley Reynolds, published by Roehampton University and funded by
the Arts Council, looks into what children like to read, rather than
their reading ability, covering issues such as how children come into
contact with all kinds of reading matter, from comics and magazines
to fiction and non-fiction books, to their preferences for favourite
books and authors, and their satisfaction with the kinds of
publications available.
Also included is data on the kinds of people influencing young
people's choice of reading matter, how young readers select what to
read, where children buy what they read and the place of reading in
relation to other out of school/leisure activities.
The survey enjoyed the participation of 22 primary and 24 secondary
schools and drew some intriguing and varied conclusions, including:
magazines are important as reading material for pleasure and as a
source of information to both boys
and girls
a noteworthy proportion of the respondents enjoyed reading
non-fiction for pleasure as well as for schoolwork. However, this
kind of reading material was of more significance to the boys than to
the girls, particularly for the purposes of pleasure
series books are currently relatively popular, with respondents of
all ages; this popularity increased with the age of participants. It
reflects the success of series such as the Harry Potter books, Lemony
Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and Anthony Horowitz's books
about Alex Rider
Researchers said it was disappointing to learn that the proportion of
children rating themselves as 'enthusiastic' readers (reading a lot,
with pleasure) decreased as the children got older.
More encouraging, however, was the fact that the proportion rating
themselves as 'average' (reading an ordinary amount) did in fact
increase with age. An overwhelming finding of the survey is that
reading is clearly one of many activities enjoyed by the children
responding to this survey. It is perhaps fighting for its place
amongst these other activities, and in some cases it is being usurped
by the more visual technologies, particularly for the boys.
This joint project was instigated by Professor Kim Reynolds, now
Professor of Children's Literature at Newcastle University, and
completed by Dr. Sally Maynard of LISU, Loughborough University. Dr.
Gillian Lathey, Director of the National Centre for Research in
Children's Literature and the NCRCL team are pleased to announce a
significant contribution to the research into all aspects of
children's literature which is at the heart of the Centre's work.
For further information:
Please contact: Christine Cain
Press and PR Manager
Ph: 0208 392 3181 Mob: 0791 351 5063
email: [log in to unmask]
www.roehampton.ac.uk
To purchase a copy of the report please e-mail Polymnia Lakiotaki:
[log in to unmask]
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**************************************************************
Dr Sally Maynard
Research Fellow, LISU and
Editor, "New Review of Children's Literature and
Librarianship"
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leicestershire LE11 3TU
***************************************************************
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0)1509 635689
Fax: +44 (0)1509 635699
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/lisu
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