‘It’s like a giant book club’: How schools get kids excited about reading again | books

AJamal, 7, is a huge fan of the InvestiGators comic books. It features two crime-busting secret agents, named Mango and Brash. “It’s really funny,” he says, then summarizes the plot of his current favorite movie in exhaustive detail.

8-year-old Rin makes her way through Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. “I didn’t read much when I was a freshman,” she says, but now she loves chapter books. A delighted boy called Siva, 8, who is enjoying one of Neil Cameron’s Donut Squad series, adds: “I love chapter books and I love picture books.”

Nwanika, 9, Loves a Normal Child by Greg James and Chris Smith. “I like it because there’s this 11-year-old kid named Murph, and he ends up in a school where everyone has super powers, except him,” she says.

There is a pleasure reading crisis among children in the UK, with enjoyment of books falling to their lowest level in two decades, research has shown. Not so here at Christ Church Primary School, a small Church of England school tucked behind the maze of HS2 building works in Camden, north London, where children get excited about books.

Last month, the Queen, who is patron of the National Literacy Trust (NLT), paid a visit to open a brand-new library, funded by Bloomberg, in the school’s playground – the first to open in the government’s National Year of Reading, a UK-wide initiative aimed at reversing the decline in the enjoyment of reading.

From the outside it looks like a large, well-kept shed. Open the doors and you’ll find colorful shelves filled with new books, benches to sit on, a soft leaf-patterned rug, and a reading room with a hidden opening where kids can curl up to read.

“We have a lot of different books,” Stina, 8, one of five new librarians, says proudly. The library is the culmination of years of work with NLT to encourage reading at the school serving families living on nearby properties.

Ross Fox, fourth-grade teacher and head of English at Christ Church, describes the school’s many initiatives to encourage children to fall in love with books, including visits by theater groups, storytellers and authors.

There are stay-in and reading sessions for parents every Friday of the month. There are ‘dress-up days’ and ‘booknics’ (outings with stories) in nearby Regent’s Park. Meanwhile, parents are encouraged to attend phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1 so they can support their children’s reading at home.

Older children read to younger children and there are book talks – an informal time for pupils to talk about what they are reading and what they recommend. “We really protect story time so that every class can hear an adult read on a daily basis,” Fox says.

The new library added more excitement. “In a world where so many of us — including children — have books at our fingertips, there is more competition for our attention than ever before,” Fox adds.

“Given that we have double the average percentage of children eligible for free school meals here, it is vital that, while they are here with us at school, they are introduced to as much good literature as possible. Schools in areas of severe deprivation must do everything they can to be book-rich.”

New research by Unison shows that almost half of library staff in England have lost their jobs since 2010, leaving communities without support after years of austerity and highlighting the challenges of getting more children to read.

Libraries in England employed 17,902 staff in 2010-11, but the number has fallen to 9,497 by 2024-25 – meaning the loss of more than 8,000 full-time jobs, according to union research.

Alton Park Preparatory School in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, is also bucking the trend and promoting reading for pleasure. Year 5 teacher Emma Preston – an avid reader and collector of signed copies – stresses the importance of developing knowledge of and enthusiasm for modern children’s literature among teachers, so that they can then inspire pupils.

At the beginning of each weekly staff meeting, the first ten minutes are devoted to discussing books. For children, there is a summer reading scavenger hunt, with activities placed on blankets around the schoolyard. In January, there is a ‘reading hyge’ day, where pupils enjoy reading in the classroom.

There’s Real November, and for National Storytelling Week, children practice reading a story aloud, which they then perform in front of their parents. “It was one of those moments,” Preston says. “When the kids were reading, I turned around and all the parents in the hall were smiling.”

Preston’s Year 5 children also recently enjoyed a visit to a nearby Penguin distribution centre, where they had a tour and met children’s author Iqbal Hussain, who gave them a signed copy of his book. “It was like gold dust, their little faces,” Preston says.

At George Green School, a large secondary and sixth form school on the Isle of Dogs in east London, where more than 60% of pupils meet the threshold for additional pupil premium funding, literacy co-ordinator Sophie Harrison agrees that every teacher should see themselves as a reader.

“Our work started with [author and educator] “Aidan Chambers’ belief is that unless a school staff includes people who enjoy books and enjoy talking to children about what they are reading, they are unlikely to be very successful in helping children become readers,” says Aidan Chambers.

“The main goal was to create a school that reads, a community of readers where ‘book chatter’ – the daily sharing of what we read, like, give away or recommend – happens across hallways, classrooms and staff rooms. We have deliberately moved from isolated events to a sustainable, daily reading culture.”

There are book clubs for staff and students, reviews and recommendations, reading buddies across different year groups, whole-school reading challenges, a school reading website, author events, and a library of around 8,000 titles plus audiobooks, with stock constantly replenished and repaired in the school’s book hospital.

“There’s no silver bullet,” Harrison says. “It’s a lot of little things that build momentum. It’s like a giant book club.”