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Children have been reading more challenging books in 2020

Children have been reported to have picked up books that are more challenging than their usual favourites during 2020.

Thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, UK students have been reading and rereading their favourite books and have been choosing titles they would not be normally offered in schools.

Alongside the usual suspects such as JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, and David Walliams, the children of the UK have been reading longer fantasy novels, books concerning race and societal change, and the classics.

According to the National Literacy Trust and BBC Newsround, the spare time kids have had over lockdown while schools were shut was not necessarily wasted. Many kids told Newsround that they were pleased to have time to really delve deep into the longer novels such as The Lord of The Rings by JRR Tolkien, or to revisit classic novels by the Brontë sisters or Charles Dickens that they had abandoned just a year previously.

It seems perhaps boredom had prompted some children to seek out their own entertainment and found it within the bookshelves at home or at their local library.

 

Over 58,000 young British people aged 9 to 18 took part in the Annual Literacy Survey took part in surveys during 2020 and the results show a significant increase in reading, with over a third saying they were reading more than ever before and over half saying they have picked up new titles to while away the hours at home. One in seven kids said they had started re-reading old favourites too.

Over half of the kids in the survey said reading made them feel better about being in lockdown, and a third explained how reading helped them feel less lonely while they couldn’t see friends or family.

Audiobooks also saw an increase with slightly more boys than girls saying they listened to audiobooks more than they had before lockdown.

The authors that were mentioned by the young viewers of BBC Newsround include JK Rowling, Malory Blackman, Suzanne Collins, and David Walliams. Many secondary pupils were reaching for Rick Riordan’s The House of Hades or Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give while primary age children were enjoying Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Prizoner of Azkaban and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.

Unfortunately for some children there have been some barriers to reading as they report a lack of access to books due to libraries being temporarily closed, and a lack of quiet spaces to enjoy their reading time.

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