Editorial 273
A New National Year of Reading
2026 will be a National Year of Reading, revealed the Department of Education this month, announcing a new campaign with the National Literacy Trust to address the steep decline in reading amongst children, young people and adults (just one in three aged 8 – 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2025). Plans announced include an extra £27.7million ‘to support the teaching of reading and writing in primary schools’, while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson urged parents to put their phones down, pick up a book and read with their children. Checking the BfK archive, we found details of the survey to mark the end of the National Year of Reading 1999 which proudly stated that ‘70% of parents with children aged 5-10 and 80% of those with children under five now read to them every day’. For some reason, those read-to children lost the habit and are not reading to their own children. It might be worthwhile asking them why.
Emphasising the link between reading for pleasure and a child’s chances in life focuses the mind, but hardly makes reading seem something you would do for fun (just one mention of fun in the DfE’s press release) or simply because it’s enjoyable and makes you happy (no mentions at all of happiness in the press release). Yet surely reading for pleasure will stem from children finding books or other written materials they enjoy reading. That means lots of choice, no judgement of reading choices, no judgement of reading form (reading poems, fiction or blogs on your phone is no less reading than on the printed page).
Local initiatives – dare we say, library led ones – could effect real change too, as highlighted in reports on successful initiatives of the last National Year of Reading here in BfK (Starting out with Books for example, covering activity in Wiltshire and Birmingham, or a scheme to encourage dads and lads reading in Hampshire) rather than a top down, curriculum led one size fits all agenda.
Should we not start too by asking young people why they don’t enjoy reading? That might be a help.
Over to the writers of the future
The winners of the 2025 Branford Boase Award were announced this month too. Awarded to author and editor of the year’s outstanding debut for children and young people, the Branford Boase Award is a barometer of developments in children’s books and this year’s shortlist and award ceremony indicate a significant shift of direction in writing for children.
The voices on this year’s shortlist feel particularly fresh, the authors writing stories drawn from their own experiences and that connect with young readers today; exactly the books young readers need to encounter.
This was obvious in the speeches given by winning author Margaret McDonald and winning editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu, in their passion for the winning Glasgow Boys and its characters – young men in the care system – and in the emotional investment that it prompts in readers.
Last year’s winner Nathanael Lessore (Steady For This, King of Nothing, What Happens Online) reflected this in the speech he gave presenting the award, saying, ‘This list has something for everyone, from all walks of life, and that is unintentionally reflected in the authors. We have stories set in Glasgow, Africa, and London, fantasy and contemporary, a crime mystery, and a deft verse novel.’
He added, ‘Because diversity is about more than race and colour. It’s culture, it’s class, it’s economic, sexuality, religion, gender, neurodiversity. All kids deserve to relate to the characters on the pages that they read. I hope that publishers have the courage to continue looking for diverse stories from ALL forms of diverse authors. Judging the books on merit alone, and seeing all forms of diversity on the Branford Boase Award shortlist shows that there is strength in variety.’
If we want to encourage children to read, we need to give them books they will enjoy and that speak directly to them. These are the books and authors coming up through the Branford Boase Award, indicating real change.
