Ten tips to get kids reading on World Book Day – and beyond
By Ciara O'Hara - Picture Book Snob
An annual event offering young people free books, World Book Day is an opportunity for every child to have the experience of getting a book from a bookshop.
Each year, book tokens or vouchers are automatically sent to schools. They can be exchanged for one of the World Book Day titles or to receive a €1.50 discount on any book.
This year, World Book Day falls on Thursday, March 2, and according to Children’s Books Ireland, approximately 8,750 vouchers have been sent to schools in Westmeath. McDonald’s are also including them with Happy Meals.
World Book Day aims to change lives through a love of books and reading. If that seems like a lofty goal, research conducted by the OECD found that: ‘Reading is more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ or guardians’ level of education, and is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.’
With so many distractions these days, it can be difficult to get kids interested in reading, but here are 10 tips to help:
1. Pick up some free books for World Book Day
There’s a great range covering all ages and interests. As they’re all small, they’re not intimidating and they’re great tasters, introducing children to different formats and authors. Don’t worry if you lose or forget your voucher. Most bookshops will happily let you take a book without one (ask first!). And you don’t have to get them on World Book Day – they’re available from the end of February until mid-March (depending on how long stocks last).
2. Let children read about what they’re interested in
Whether it’s football or fashion, Marvel or Minecraft, follow a child’s interests and give them books on subjects that already have their attention. Parents often complain that their kids will only read books about fairies, superheroes, horses, or their favourite cartoon characters, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t censor or dismiss anything because you feel it’s lacking in literary value – it doesn’t matter what they’re reading about as long as they are reading. And never tell a child that any book is too babyish for them.
3. Ask librarians and booksellers for recommendations
While it’s debatable whether there’s a book in everyone, there’s definitely a book for everyone, but they’re not always easy to find. It’s often hard to see what’s on the crowded shelves of libraries and bookshops, and the choice can be overwhelming. Librarians and booksellers love helping people pick books and can order titles especially for you. So, don’t be shy about asking for their advice, and encourage young people to do the same.
4. Don’t push classics
If you don’t spend all your time reading Dickens or Dostoyevsky, don’t expect a child to do the equivalent. While classics do, of course, have merit, they can seem old-fashioned and off-putting to a young person. It’s best to let readers gravitate towards them by themselves, should they feel so inclined. Classic authors were contemporary once and there are amazing writers currently publishing books using settings, scenarios and language to which kids can easily relate. The children’s sections in bookshops and libraries are sometimes scary places for adults, who tend to reach for authors and titles they recognise from their youth. But these books were often outdated even then – if you’re stuck, ask for help (see tip 3).
5. Try humour
Reading might not always come naturally but laughing does, and funny books are fantastic gateway material. I can’t get my own daughter to read anything by herself unless it’s funny. The Wimpy Kid books have long been popular and have an enticing balance of text and illustrations. Gill books have just launched the first in a new series set in Cork for Wimpy Kid fans. Author Leona Forde was inspired to write Milly McCarthy is a Complete Catastrophe because her daughter loved the Wimpy Kid books and wished there was something similar set in Ireland with a female main character. Diary of an Accidental Witch by Honor and Perdita Cargill and Katie Saunders and the Loki series by Louis Stowell are excellent for readers who enjoy the Wimpy Kid style of storytelling too. For emerging readers, The Rabbit and Bear books by Julian Gough and Jim Field and the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam series by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton are great for emerging readers, as are the Danny books by Brianóg Brady Dawson, Space Detectives by Mark Powers and Dapo Adeola, Pizazz by Sophy Henn and Don’t Disturb the Dragons by Michelle Robinson and Sharon Davey. Dave Pigeon: Bookshop Mayhem by Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey is one of the funny early readers available for World Book Day.
6. Try non-fiction
There are lots of adults who never read fiction but enjoy non-fiction, so if novels don’t appeal to your child, try some fact books instead. Younger readers might enjoy books about nature or history, and biographies of musicians, actors or sport personalities might be more attractive to teens. I often struggle to get my own almost-eight-year-old reading but she loves Everything Under the Sun by Molly Oldfield. It has snippets of information, so readers can dip in and out of it, and contains the answers to 365 questions asked by actual children. Books that combine humour with facts are brilliant too. The ‘Interview With…’ series by Andy Seed presents information about animals and historical figures in the style of a comedic Q&A session and is terrific. History’s Biggest Show-Offs, by the same author, is also wonderful. Lifesize Creepy Crawlies by Sophy Henn and Kay’s Brilliant Brains Adam Kay are two of this year’s free World Book Day titles that are entertaining and informative.
7. Try graphic novels
Graphic novels or comic-style books are another brilliant way to attract potential readers without intimidating them. My daughter loves the Narwhal and Jelly books by Ben Clanton and laughs out loud while reading them. She also enjoys the Press Start! Books by Thomas Flintham and their video-game setting makes them a hit with gamers too. The Dogman and Cat Kid collection by Dave Pilkey is enormously popular, as is the Investigators series by John Patrick Green. The Hilda stories by Luke Pearson are brilliant too and there’s a Netflix series based on them as well. The Alex Rider, Artemis Fowl, Famous Five and Babysitter Club books have all been adapted as graphic novels too. For comic-book fans, there’s even a free World Book Day book: Marvel Spider-Man the Amazing Pocket Guide.
8. Try interactive books
Children connect with interactive books in a completely different way than they do with more traditional texts. Even though there isn’t reading as such in them, they fuel the imagination, inspiring young people to make up their own stories, helping them become familiar with, and fond of, books. Search and find titles like Where’s Wally and Billy Conker’s Nature-Spotting Adventure by Conor Busuttil and the My Little Album series by Juliette Saumande and Tarsila Krüse are ideal. Then there are the You Choose books by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt, which allow children to place themselves within a narrative and decide what happens. My five-year-old is obsessed with these and we have brought them everywhere; they have come in particularly handy on trips to the ED! There is a special edition for World Book Day which is pocket-sized and perfect for taking on journeys or reading in waiting rooms.
9. Don’t judge or compare
Don’t compare your child’s reading levels to those of their peers – everyone is different. And don’t compare it to your own level at the same age. There’s a lot more to keep kids busy since those who are grown-ups were children. When I was my eldest daughter’s age, I was reading more ‘advanced’ material, but I didn’t have much choice; children’s TV was more or less non-existent, no one had game consoles, and there wasn’t even a local playground that I can recall. Young people have lots more demands on their attention today and it isn’t a fair comparison. Parents sometimes call their children ‘bad’, ‘weak’ or, worst of all, ‘lazy’ readers in front of them. That is crushing for a child, and it can give them negative associations with books – please don’t do that!
10. Encourage them to be critics
Start a family book club and set aside time once a week for everyone to read independently. Encourage children to share reviews of their books with the rest of the family once they’ve finished them, talking about why they did or didn’t like them, their favourite parts. Talk to them about the books you enjoy too and try reading some of the books your children are reading so you can share your thoughts about the story. Direct young people to sites like toppsta.com and paperlanternslit.com where they can read reviews written by people the same age as them and even submit reviews of their own.
Hope this helps! You can see all the books available for World Book Day on worldbookday.com/books or by calling in to your nearest bookstore.