How to get Children Reading Again Financial Review 18th July 2025

“Reading holds the keys to so much of children’s education.”

Reading with children also helps cultivate good (reading) habits.

You might like to begin with this blog post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything - she alerted me to this article in the Financial Review.

Here are some quotes from the piece that resonated with me:

Nicki Duckett, the teacher who oversees reading at the school (Silverdale Primary Academy UK) ... has an ambition to marry the “skill” and the “will” to read. In the 20 years she has worked in education, she has observed how the proliferation of gaming and smartphones, a busy school day, plus extracurricular clubs and activities create “more demands on children’s time”.

“Without adult reading role models in homes, schools and wider society, it is likely children will find it harder to develop the reading habit.”

Immersion in new worlds, the delight in good writing and the discovery of information are goals in themselves. But the decline in reading has broader implications for employability, participation in democracy, and literacy, including critical thinking, particularly important in the age of digital misinformation.

Another study found “significant evidence that reading is linked to important developmental factors in children, improving their cognition, mental health, and brain structure, which are cornerstones for future learning and wellbeing”.

Tech is also a problem for parents, says Douglas. “They are not modelling great reading habits because they’re always on their phones. They are also more likely to put kids on a device. There is a decline in parents reading to children.”

Check out my recent post which explores many of these important issues. 

This article also touches other issues such as giving readers choice to select the books they want to read; the availability of books in libraries and shops and classrooms; books for boys aged 11 and 12; and the pesky issue of celebrity authors (I call these Fairy Floss books). 

The statistics in the Financial Review piece are from the UK. Here is a snap shot of the situation in Australia:

Anna Burkey Reading Australia - ABC News 14th July

"We're not just seeing people not reading for themselves … we're seeing people not reading to their children as much and that they are less likely to read to boys than to girls," she said. 

Ms Burkey said she would like to see more dads reading to their children to set a positive example.

"Reading for pleasure as a child is one of the biggest indicators of future success as an adult, and spending time reading increases empathy, while helping us feel less anxious,"

"Reading brings down your blood pressure, it slows your heart rate, it calms you down and it allows focus and concentration in a world where our attention spans are getting ever more fragmented.

"Reading allows us to have more focus and concentration and, if you read regularly, you're more likely to sleep better at night."

"[Not reading] means that we don't see the patterns in things, we don't see the human behaviours that keep repeating in politics and public life because we're not doing the deep, slow thinking and books are vital to the deep, slow thinking."

"Reading is proven to help you understand your place in the world, 
to walk in other people's shoes," she said. 

Flying Through Water by Mamle Wolo

We all grabbed bailing vessels. Thunder cracked, and lightning streaked across the sky like a celestial tree revealing its branches for a split second. I felt as though I were caught in a different dimension where death was as present as life, and everything was elemental and terrifying.

I thought about this world and the things we humans struggled for, and all the ways in which we imprisoned ourselves, and each other. It seemed to me that greed was just as much of a prison as poverty, only worse. Here I was alone on this island in the middle of nowhere, stripped of whatever meager possessions I had ever owned. And yet in nature’s heart I felt liberated and endowed with a splendor beyond anything humans could ever purchase. 

What greater wealth was there in this world than freedom?

This story is told in three parts. Sena describes his life in Ghana and his special relationship with is grandfather who tells him stories of his village life before the artificial creation of Volta Lake and the Akosombo Dam. Sena lives with his mother, sister and baby brother. They are very poor but he has been able to go to school. His education is not perfect and the teachers are often absent and they do beat the students but if he can sit the final exam there is the promise of further education and hopefully a better life for his family. But there is a young man who visits their village with promises to the young boys of work and money and perhaps even adventures. Sena is suspicious of this flashy man who they call 'Jack of Diamonds' and he has heard stories of boys sent to work with cattle - boys who are given little or no food and forced to work in dreadful conditions. Sena is determined not to follow this path but then his grandfather dies, his mother is gravely ill with malaria and his best friend declares he is heading away to work because he is sure the promises from 'Jack of Diamonds' are true. 

Sena loves his family and he really wants to help them so after his final exam he leaves a letter under his sister's pillow and he heads off - what he does not know is that this will be a journey into hell. So begins part two. Sena is taken to work as a slave for a cruel master catching fish and diving deep into treatrous waters to untangle the fishing nets. He is given virtually no food, he is beaten and the group of about ten boys are forbidden to talk to each other except about their tasks. Yes this is illegal human trafficking. Can Sena escape? Where will he go? What will happen if he is caught? He does befriend one of the boys and then that boy is killed - possibly murdered by their master - so now Sena must leave. He arrived at this place terrified of water and unable to swim. After several months of this cruel work he can now swim but he is still terrified of the dark water and the waves and he has not learned how to float. Part 3 is all about survival because he does find his way to a small deserted island with only monkeys for company but of course he must also find a way to get back to his family. He also carries huge guilt about the boys he left behind and he has made a new wonderful discovery of a special and rare underwater animal - the lake Manatee. The book ends with a sense of hope for the future for Sena himself but also for other trafficked boys and hopefully also for this very special wild creature who is also trapped in the waters of this lake.

Here are a few text quotes from this book:

Treatment by teachers: The humiliation hurt almost more than the lashes, but I hardened myself to it even though it upset me that the teachers beat us when they knew how hard our lives were. They knew we weren’t late out of laziness or what they called I-don’t-care-ism. But I got used to that too—the callousness of powerful people and the way they didn’t care what was fair.

Kekeli - a description: She had a round face, and when she smiled it was as if the distance between her lips and chin had been measured with a protractor and traced with a compass, their curves were so perfectly parallel. Her laughter was like that of a baby discovering funniness for the first time and too little to contain it. She could spark off the whole class.

Grandfather the storyteller: He said stories took us where our legs couldn’t go and showed us what our eyes couldn’t see, and that the best thing about books was that they were still there when storytellers were gone. I could see what he meant when I thought that one day, he wouldn’t be here to tell us stories anymore—a prospect I quickly banished. I loved his stories more than any I’d read in books.

Jack of Diamonds: Everyone was excited and following his every move, but something in me held back. I wondered if I was the only one to whom his mannerisms seemed somehow familiar, as if he’d studied them on someone else, like Shatta Wale or Burna Boy. Perhaps I was just being silly, but it made me uneasy that we couldn’t see his eyes, because he never took off his sunglasses. And it was amazing how he kept that black jacket on in this heat.

Publisher blurb: Sena treasures his life in rural Ghana-playing soccer, working the family farm, striving to do his best at school-but he is increasingly aware of his family's precarious security in the face of poverty. When an alluring gentleman comes to town to befriend local teenagers, offering promises of a better future, it only takes one more unsettling turn of events to send Sena into the clutches of human traffickers. Sena's ordeal, escape, and remarkable survival makes for a page-turning adventure of self-discovery and empowerment.

Searing and eye-opening, readers will devour Sena’s story in a day. School Library Journal

Wolo skillfully sheds light on the horrific practice of the trafficking of children, and the grim situations many are forced to live and work in—but she also tells a story of hope and perseverance. The vividly described settings include imagery that paints the scenes for readers as the story unfolds. A powerful look at human suffering and the will to survive. Kirkus Star review

Jack of Diamonds turns out to be a pied piper for a human trafficking network and thus, Sena finds that he has been sold into indentured labour to a fisherman who employs a motley crew of children, some as young as three, in a bid to compete with foreign trawlers working the Volta Lake. Cold and brutish, Sena’s master is a formidable antagonist, the like of which populates Dickensian novels, but the real villain here is the systemic poverty that has left intergenerational scars and threatens the possibility of a future for its under aged victims, who are malnourished, overworked, and constantly exposed to the risk of drowning. The Lagos Review

Fans of Hatchet and A Long Walk to Water will find Flying Through water an engrossing book. Sadly I have no idea how I discovered this book - I must have seen it recommended somewhere.

Listen to an audio sample here. This book only in hardcover so far is too expensive here in Australia (AUS$32.50) but I read a copy on a Kindle.

I recommend this moving and atmospheric story for readers aged 12+ especially those with an interest in social justice. Your senior students could also investigate the work of our Australian organisation that assists victims of modern slavery - The Freedom Hub.

I recently read this book which also explores the topic of human trafficking:

Stitched up

My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson

Reading this book you will quickly fall into the gentle rhythm of the writing. The story, told here by Katherine Paterson, is easy to read but it also offers an amazing insight into a piece of history, especially the history of Cuba, that I knew absolutely nothing about.

Based on the true experiences of those involved in Fidel Castro’s universal literacy programme, which aimed to bring literacy to all of Cuba in just 12 months, this is a fascinating look at a period of recent world history seen through the eyes of an idealistic young woman. A vivid portrayal of the value of education in empowering even the poorest people. Book Trust

750,000 volunteers signed up to teach people in remote areas of Cuba how to read and write. In just one year the United Nations declared Cuba to be an "illiteracy-free" nation.

Lora aged only 13, travels to a remote farming area where she meets a wonderful family - all of whom are determined to learn to read and write even though at the beginning none can even write their own name. Lora is patient and also very keen to learn farm chores so she can assist the family. The materials supplied for teaching do contain propaganda about Castro but Katherine Paterson does not dwell on this. For myself, I was curious to see these primers used by the young teachers. As a reader I was totally caught up in watching Lora work and live with this family. Some learn quickly others have to work very hard and the whole time Lora shows a quiet wisdom well beyond her years. Katherine Paterson also creates just the right amount of tension in her story when we read that a year ago another young volunteer eighteen year old Conrado Benitez was murdered by insurgents. Lora's team are named after this young man. "Conrado Benitez Brigadistas—100,000 young volunteers (ages 10–19) who left school to live and work with students in the countryside." All of the young teachers are on edge throughout the year knowing these insurgents are still very active. 

Here are some text quotes:

"Even if they didn't like me, they had asked for a teacher and volunteered to take one into their home - so they must want to learn - they must want to be able to read and write. ... But was I up to the task of teaching them?"

"Step by step, students would move from learning vowels and consonants to learning words, short phrases, then sentences. At the same time the lessons would help our students understand about our country after the revolution - about land reform, cooperative stories, the conversion of buildings that once belonged to the rich into homes and schools for the poor."

"I learned a lot that day - how to fill the large cans with water from the river ... how to boil coffee, how to wash clothes on the rocks by the river, ... how to feed the chickens and the goats and the oxen, how to prepare a meal. I would even learn how to skilfully milk a goat, cut corn with a machete, ride a horse, and plow a field behind a team of oxen."

Publisher blurb: When thirteen-year-old Lora tells her parents that she wants to join Premier Castro’s army of young literacy teachers, her mother screeches to high heaven, and her father roars like a lion. Lora has barely been outside of Havana — why would she throw away her life in a remote shack with no electricity, sleeping on a hammock in somebody’s kitchen? But Lora is stubborn: didn’t her parents teach her to share what she has with someone in need? Surprisingly, Lora’s abuela takes her side, even as she makes Lora promise to come home if things get too hard. But how will Lora know for sure when that time has come? Shining light on a little-known moment in history, Katherine Paterson traces a young teen’s coming-of-age journey from a sheltered life to a singular mission: teaching fellow Cubans of all ages to read and write, while helping with the work of their daily lives and sharing the dangers posed by counterrevolutionaries hiding in the hills nearby.

Readers should not expect an action-packed tale, but the writing is straightforward and moves at a swift pace. ...  Paterson offers a glimpse of the daily life of a brigadista, redressing the cursory associations many have about Castro’s Cuba. Hers is a positive study of an amazing moment in history that nonetheless acknowledges the darker political machinations at play. Kirkus

Foremost this is an engaging story about a young girl asserting her independence at a time of change and following through with her convictions. A strong message to share with young girls, especially. Just Imagine

Here is an interview with Katherine Paterson where she talks about this book. The video is 40 minutes but it is well worth taking the time to listen.  You can read here why Katherine Paterson wrote this book. Read more about the literacy program in 1961 here. Five Questions plus one with Katherine Paterson. 

The endorsement on the back of this book is so wonderful - it is from an actual brigadista. Emilia says: "it was an experience of solidarity, in the very best sense of what each of us as a human being has to offer."

When I was helping a friend re-shelve her extensive book collection recently we discovered she had two copies of My Brigadista Year and so she offered this copy to me. This is the real joy of reading - walking for a few hours in the shoes of another person. Lora is a quiet hero and I am thrilled to have discovered her story. 

Here are some quotes from the book review by Dr Robin Morrow for Magpies Magazine (Paterson, Katherine (My Brigadista Year) Magpies Vol.33 No.1 March 2018 p.37):

The arresting cover accurately signals the content of this book. A bright-eyed girl strides purposefully forward, clad in khaki uniform, carrying not a gun but books and pencil, against a background of workers in the fields. 

With short sentences and plenty of dialogue, veteran storyteller Katherine Paterson uses Lora’s first-person narration to draw the reader into this tale of resilience and deep change ...

This late-career book from Katherine Paterson shows she has retained her courage, deft touch and depth of feeling.

Companion books set in Cuba:

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop

Publisher blurb: 1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing by Elizabeth Winthrop:

"Arthur Trottier is my best student. He could be a teacher or a manager or even a lawyer someday. As long as you leave him be. Because we both know the only way he will ever come back to this school is when your machine spits him out."

"The mill owners own everything in town - the store, the school and our houses."

"The river doesn't seem to mind. Borrow my water it says. Long as you give it back. Trouble is when the mill spits the water back out, it comes out all dirty and it smells queer."

"Every girl in the mill has to have her hair bound up so it don't get caught in the machines."

"But now I'm here to work, not play. The air in the mill is stuffy and linty and sweaty at the same time 'cause all day long water sprays down on the frames from little hoses in the ceiling... you don't breathe too deep for fear of what you might be sucking down your throat."

"You've got to pay attention in the mill or else those big old bad machines, they'll snatch up any loose piece hanging off a person and gobble it up."

"Maybe the screaming is coming from me and maybe it's coming from Arthur, but all I know is he's gone and put his fingers in that place between the sprockets and they're chewing his hand all to bits. ... I'm the only one who knows Arthur was fixing to do whatever he to so's he could get out of the mill."

Read more plot details here. Sadly Counting on Grace is now out of print (first published in 2006) but I was able to read a ebook version. Listen to the story of the photo on the cover of this book. And read more here.  Audio sample. 

Addie never knew that her face ended up in a Reebok advertisement or on a postage stamp issued 100 years after her birth, or that Hine's glass plate negative resides in the Library of Congress. Addie Card LaVigne never knew that she had become a symbol.

Solid research and lively writing make this a fine historical novel Kirkus

Imaginative, plucky, and both smart and smart-mouthed, Grace is a heroine who leaves the reader confident that she will fulfill Miss Lesley’s hopes for her – and ours. Hisorical Novel Society

I have read and really enjoyed other books with a mill and factory worker setting such as Lyddie by Katherine Paterson and later her book Bread and Roses too. Then I watched the television adaption of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Bread and Roses too

The Most Beautiful place in the World by Ann Cameron

An "absorbing narrative, careful use of authentic, concrete detail intrinsic to the story as well as illustrative of the culture portrayed, and sympathetic understanding of a child's world--all in a story that will be enjoyed by younger children"  Kirkus

In 1992 our CBCA slogan was Windows into Worlds.  This slim book (54 pages) The Most Beautiful Place in the World fits that theme perfectly. Even though this is a short story I think it would best suit readers of 9 and older.

Juan lives in Guatemala. Through no fault of his own, life is very hard for Juan. His father leaves the family when Juan is a tiny baby. He moves with his mother into his grandmothers house but when his mother remarries she leaves Juan behind. When Juan is five his grandmother decides he needs to earn money so she sets him up as a shoeshine boy. Juan works hard but he feels resentful when he sees other city children heading off to school. By asking questions he learns the basics of reading and finally when he is seven and a half he gathers enough courage to ask his grandmother to send him to school. He greatly fears she will say no or worse she will also reject him as his mother and step father have already rejected him. Thank goodness he is wrong on both counts.

Here are a few story quotes to give you a flavour of this really special writing:

"But best of all, my grandmother owns her house and the land it's on. She keeps the papers that prove it in an iron box under her bed, and she's sure of what they say because somebody she trusts read them to her ... "

"It got bad when I saw kids who were going past me on the way to school. I was sitting in the dust all smeared up with shoe polish, and they were all neat and clean, with their pencils and their notebooks, going to school."

"School?' She said it like I'd said I wanted to go to Mars. 'You can't go. ... you're too young, you're five.' 'Grandma,' I said, 'I'm not five, I'm seven!"

"And she looked at me as if I were a man already, and said that maybe by studying I could find out why some people were rich, and some were poor, and some countries were rich, and some were poor, because she had thought about it a lot, but she could never understand it."

I first discovered Ann Cameron through her book Banana Spaghetti which features the characters found in her book series about Huey and his brother Julian. I also loved Spunky tells all - take a look at my review.

I would pair this book with The Paper House and for older students Figgy takes the City.  You could use The Most Beautiful place in the World with older students when discussing the Rights of the Child.

Finally from his description Juan does convince me Guatemala is one of the most beautiful places in the world - green hills, lots of flowers, flocks of birds and a happy evenings spent strolling and storytelling.

Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges illustrated by Sophie Blackall

I mentioned in a previous post that we have been exploring picture books with an Asian focus with our senior classes.  One of the first books we looked at was Ruby's Wish and it certainly generated some deep discussions.

Ruby is living in China in the early nineteenth century.  Her grandfather has made his fortune on the Gold Fields or "Gold Mountain.   That was what the Chinese called California when many men left to join the Gold Rush there."  As was the custom of the time, Grandfather has many wives and many sons who also have many wives and they all live together in a magnificent home.  "So at one time, the house was filled with the shrieks and laughter of over one hundred children."

Life is good for Ruby. She like to wear red but this is traditionally meant for celebrations.  This does not deter Ruby who adds a red ribbon to her jet black hair when her mother insists she must wear somber colours.  Grandfather is generous and so all the children are provided with lessons.  In spite of this, though, things are not always equal for boys and girls.  Ruby observes that girls are expected to learn cooking, keeping house and embroidery while the boys are free to play after class.

Ruby is careful with her calligraphy and is noticed by her grandfather.  One day she uses her calligraphy skills to write a heart-felt poem.

Alas bad luck to be born a girl; and worse lucky to be born 

into this house where only boys are cared for.

Her grandfather is given the poem and Ruby is summoned to his office. This is where the real skills of Ruby shine.  Her grandfather asks for examples of this inequality.  Her first example is small and unimportant. The boys get better cakes, Her second is also fairly minor. The boys have splendid lanterns in the shape of goldfish and dragons while the girl's are plain. Finally she makes her most important point :

"the boys will get to go to university, but the girls will be married."

How will her grandfather react?

Here are a set of teaching notes, Kirkus review and illustrator web site.  A note at the end of the book explains that this story was inspired by the author's mother - the real Ruby who did indeed attend university as one of the first female students.  You can see the whole book here.

The red pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney illustrated by Shane W Evans

The Red Pencil is a verse novel. I adore verse novels.  Reading this one I knew I would be taken on a hugely emotional journey.  It is a long book at 308 pages and yet I read it all in one sitting.  I will recommend this text to senior primary students and to teachers exploring the topic of refugees.

The Red Pencil is a beautifully crafted and very important story especially right now with so many people from around the world forced to move from their home and seek refuge often in distant places.
Amira has just turned twelve. Her life is a happy one but she has one desperate desire - to go to school, to learn, to enjoy a life of possibilities beyond those offered in her small Sudanese village. In part one, Our farm South Darfur, Africa September 2003 - March 2004 we read about daily life - the struggles and love in this family.  Every family in the village watched the moon.

"A hiding moon is a curse

it means

the worst

luck is sure to fall

...

That is why we wake the moon.

Tradition tells us

to make the waking loud.

To rouse that moon.

To scare it out,

             to full sight."

Little sister Leila is born on a night when the moon stays hidden.  She is born with oddly shaped legs and a crooked spine but she will grow into a girl with inspirational determination.

There is a threat hanging over this small community.  The Janjaweed are a group of militia. The word janaweed means devils on horseback.  They attack Amira's village, her father is killed and so the remaining villagers including Amira, her mother and little sister must flee.  The journey is dangerous and terrifying.

"Our weary feet

keep moving

silently

across vast sheets of sand,

spreading wide

for miles,

rolled out like a rippling carpet,

leading to uncertainty"

Eventually the group reach a displaced persons camp and so the story moves to Part 2 Kalma April 2004 - June 2004.  It is in this camp that Amira is given her precious red pencil by a aid worker.  She also begins important, but secret lessons, with Old Anwar.  It is these two things which rekindle her dreams of education and a different life path.

Here is a detailed review.  You can read the author's experience and listen to a podcast. Here is a video where Andrea Davis Pinkney talks about her book.

You might also like to read the Horn Book review.  Our copy of The red pencil  contains a discussion guide, Sudanese word list and author notes.

I would recommend you also read A long walk to water, Inside out and back again, Secrets in the fire, and the picture book Four feet two sandals.

This tale of displacement in a complex, war-torn country is both accessible and fluent

The Paper House by Lois Peterson

"Safiyah stodd ankle-deep in garbage near the top of the dump.   Below her lay the Kibera slum, a patchwork of rusty tin roofs.  A thick blanket of cloud and dirty smoke hid the concrete buildings and busy roads of nearby Nairobi. ... Safiyah sold most of the stuff she found at the dump.  It was the only way to make money for a pound of maize or some tea.  Sometimes a breadfruit for Cucu, her grandmother, who loved them so much."

The Paper House is another book that I found during our library stocktake. This is one of those slim volumes (108 pages) with a powerful story.

While Safiyah is digging through the rubbish dump she finds some magazines.  She takes them home and with her friend Pendo she pulls some of her favourite pictures out of the glossy magazines.  As Safiyah looks at these images she can see patterns and a picture forms in her mind.  The hut she shares with her beloved grandmother is draughty and cold.  Safiyah stuffs the cracks in the walls with torn pages from the magazines but then she has the idea of papering the outside.  Her friend borrows some scissors and glue from her school and Safiyah begins to create her murals but her work is suddenly interrupted when Cucu is taken ill and Safiyah moves into the hospital to stay by her side. 

You can read the full details of the plot here but this might spoil the story so I recommend reading this heart warming and evocative tale first.  There is an excellent little trailer here.  This blog will give you some teaching ideas and further links.