Children reading more during lockdown, report shows

A new report by the National Literacy Trust and Puffin shows that children are reading more and enjoying reading more during lockdown than before.

Largely due to having more time to read and greater access to digital stories, the findings also revealed that there has been a significant uplift in children reading fiction both in print (41 per cent) and on screen (27 per cent), with children mostly choosing to escape lockdown through tales of adventure (65 per cent), comedy (48 per cent) and fantasy (40 per cent).

Puffin also saw a rise in popularity of these genres with bestselling titles during lockdown including Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, One of us is Lying by Karen McManus and Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses series.

Reading has also provided vital support for children during this challenging time. The National Literary Trust says that 59 per cent of children said that reading made them feel better and 32 per cent said it helped them when they felt sad because they could not see their family and friends. Half of children also said reading inspired them to dream about the future.

Although more children have been enjoying reading during lockdown, the report also shows that the reading enjoyment gap between boys and girls increased five-fold during lockdown, while the reading frequency gap almost doubled.

However, the report did reveal that audiobooks could play a vital role in bridging this gap and providing a route into reading for boys, with more boys than girls (25 per cent vs 22 per cent) listening to audiobooks more often in lockdown and 51 per cent of boys saying that listening to audiobooks has increased their interest in reading.

Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literary Trust, said: “During such uncertain times, it is heartening that so many children and young people have found comfort, enjoyment and inspiration in the magical world of stories. Helping children sustain a love of reading beyond lockdown will be crucial to supporting their literacy skills, wellbeing and life chances after such a significant disruption to their education. Books have the power to transform children’s lives and we are so thankful to be working with Puffin to bring stories to life for children and families who need them most.”