Encouraging kids to read — one book at a time

CHILDREN typically attend school 15% of their time, which makes access to books at home particularly important.

Many of the children we work with in our primary school reading programme do not have regular access to books at home and/or in local libraries.

Literacy levels are linked to family reading practices and, regardless of gender, tend to follow intergenerational patterns. If you had books at home, your children likely will. International research tells us unequivocally that the more books a child reads, the better reader s/he becomes. Thank you to Niall Murray for highlighting findings from the State of the Nation’s Children 2010 report, however, teen gift preferences are just that — surely, we know better when it comes to providing our children with as many varied reading materials as possible.

If you don’t have a child at home, consider donating books or magazines to one of the schools in your area. The children in our programme have always been delighted to receive picture books each Christmas as gifts, and report to us every January how much they enjoyed reading and rereading them. Children from past years continue to surprise me when we meet and I hear how they still cherish that Christmas book. Encouraging readers of all ages is hard work, but we can do it together — one book at a time.

Maura McMahon

Parnell Street

Dublin