As recently covered in the fascinating Vox article “The promising race to get kids reading again” by Constance Grady, kids read and read and read up until about age 9, when they drop off a reading cliff.
Via Scholastic.com
There are plenty of theories for this, as outlined by Grady, including:
- Middle-grade books getting too long, due in part to the success of the billion-page-long Harry Potter series.
- Kids having less free time to sit and read because they are more scheduled than earlier generations.
- Covid-19 threw off reading habits, along with access to libraries and books in school.
- Potential readers putting down books and picking up phones, tablets, and video game consoles.
The good news is that publishers are aware of this, and are actively working to address this huge issue by offering up more illustrated titles, graphic novels, and shorter-length books as well as making sure there are light, breezy, funny options for readers who may still want to read, but aren’t sure they want to crack open the #kidlit version of War and Peace.
Keeping people of all ages engaged in reading is of vital importance.
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Andrea Pyros is the author of the two middle-grade novels, PINK HAIR AND OTHER TERRIBLE IDEAS and MY YEAR OF EPIC ROCK. Visit http://andreapyros.com to find out more and https://bsky.app/profile/andreapyros.bsky.social to talk middle-grade.
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