"Decline by 9" - Kids don't read

[Hopscotch]

Not Lost in a Book
Slate   May 5, 2024

“…At least among one audience, books are dying...the exact audience whose departure from reading might actually presage a catastrophe for the publishing industry—and for the entire concept of pleasure reading as a common pursuit….Sales of ‘middle-grade’ books—the classification covering ages 8 through 12—[is] the only sector of the industry that’s underperforming compared to 2019.…kids in third and fourth grade are beginning to stop reading for fun….at age 8, 57 percent of kids say they read books for fun most days; at age 9, only 35 percent do….the very age when, according to publishing lore, lifetime readers are made….any number of causes for middle-graders’ lost love of reading [screen time, schools teaching reading to test, librarians worry for book bans, publishers chasing bestsellers, etc]…adds up to an environment where kids are less passionate about reading and, even if they somehow do get excited, they’re less likely to discover the book that will keep them excited….”

https://slate.com/culture/2024/05/kids-reading-fun-books-decline-by-nine-crisis.html

[TimothyEllis]

I found school put me off reading more than anything else did.

I wasn't interested in what they wanted me to read, and I read it so fast that by the time we discussed the books, I'd already forgotten them.

I picked up reading again after I left high school and was earning money.

I'm not too worried about that age group. I don't aim at them, and I don't expect them to start buying books themselves until they're in their late teens or twenties.

If the stats start showing that the same drop off is happening in the 20's group, then we can start to get worried.

But stats like these can be very deceptive anyway, because of the small samples, or limited groups they sample.

The first thing I want to know is what was the actual question asked was.

Because that question could have been aimed at paperbacks by the way it was phrased, and is being interpreted to mean all books. And if so, that's BS.

[Post-Crisis D]

I found school put me off reading more than anything else did.

I wasn't interested in what they wanted me to read, and I read it so fast that by the time we discussed the books, I'd already forgotten them.

It was mixed for me.  I know I have a number of kids' books (and am still miffed that I lost many due to water damage), but I remember reading mostly non-fiction.  One of my grade school teachers (5th grade, maybe?) complained I was reading too much non-fiction when I did my book reports.  So, that was when I (had to) switched to fiction, starting with The Odyssey.

I don't know how much of an effect that had.  I suppose it was negligible when it came to making my own choices.  But, when we had to read assigned books, that was different.  I remember we had to read The Catcher in the Rye and I still believe that is one of the most overrated books of all time.  I mean, were we supposed to identify with the protagonist because he was a teenager?  I didn't.  I just longed for him to get hit by a bus so the book would be over.

[writeway]

Grown women have always been the biggest readers in history and now. Men usually aren't big readers, never have been. I doubt many kids were ever passionate about reading. Most read because they have to in school and boys rarely ever read if it's not mandatory. It's the same with men. Men read way less than women, always have. And when they do read men tend to read nonfiction books, etc. Women read for pleasure more than anyone. Girls do read more than boys it seems but to what extent?

My point is, children are not monolithic. You got some that like to read and some don't, just like adults. When I was a kid, I read a lot. I read way more than I ever did as an adult. Why? Because as a kid I wasn't as busy, and I enjoyed books more back then. As an adult, I am much picker with my reading than I was as a kid so it's harder for me to find books I wanna read. A lot of the books that are popular don't appeal to me and I only read indie now. I haven't bought a trade book in years. But if you asked me would I rather write than read, hell yeah. I spend way more time writing and I enjoy immersing myself in my own stories more than I do reading. Doesn't mean I don't like to read anymore but it's not as big of a passion for me as it was when I was younger.

So, IMO, I don't think kids in general were any more passionate about reading in the past. If you didn't have school, many wouldn't read at all. It's the parents we should be talking about. They should enforce reading more and get their children more involved than just letting them be on the computer on social media all day. But then again the parents probably don't read either so...  If you don't do something you sure aren't gonna tell someone else to do it.

I was a kid in the 80s and a teen in the 90s. We didn't have the Internet, cell phones, social media, etc. All we had was cable, TV, and music. That in itself was enough of a distraction for some kids not to read. And when I was a kid we always went outside to play everyday after school and on weekends. Many kids only read when they had homework. Today, these kids have WAY more distractions than even I had so heck, if I was a child today I don't know if I would be reading much either for pleasure. Not saying that's a good thing at all. I think kids should be reading as much as possible to learn stuff, but much of it is a sign of the times and not so much about the state of literature or books. I don't have kids, but if I did I would definitely instill the importance of reading to them.

[Lynn]

My suspicion is that if that age group isn't reading for fun, then it's because either parents aren't bringing in the books to the house that the kids want to read, or the kids aren't being encouraged in a fun way at school (or in clubs) or even have access to reading they think of as fun. This is what comes of parents who want to control their kids and their activities, and what comes of schools and kids being dragged into the middle of culture wars by parents and governments who want to get in the way of kids' own discernment and ability to choose what they find fun and entertaining or interesting to read.

Surest way to kill a kid's interest in reading it to tell them what they should or shouldn't like.

So honestly I'm not surprised, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, and I also wouldn't be surprised if kids are actually finding and reading more books through pirating and other online resources that they can keep hidden from their parents than the people asking these questions will ever hear from the kids themselves.

Honestly, this is what my daughter did, before I found out and let her understand clearly that she could read whatever she wanted. I wasn't going to confiscate her tablet because of what she was reading. Then we talked about fiction and how important it is to remember that fiction is fiction and reality is something else and that part of the beauty of fiction is that very thing.

As for me, when I was in middle school, we had reading competitions. Who could read the most books from the school library? I scoured the library for anything I could find that I might remotely be interested in because I wanted to win. It was my first exposure to second person fiction, choose your own adventure books, and a lot of other genres I'd have never read otherwise.

[Matthew]

Seems like that article lacks any useful data. "the very age when, according to publishing lore, lifetime readers are made" Right. I'll just trust lore to be a scientific study.

I'm sure the reasons are an amalgamation of many factors. Covid, screens, educational funding and curriculum, lack of parental care.

Lynn has some good points, and the only reason I was reading at a young age is because my mother took me to the library.

From my own experience, I have to generally agree with Tim. School absolutely killed any interest I had in reading. I was forced to read books I didn't want to read, write book reports for them, and get points marked off because my interpretations weren't the correct interpretations. When I stopped actually reading the books and just rephrased Spark Notes, my grades improved. I found it hard to read for pleasure after having books associated with hard work and pain.

It wasn't until I was in college that I started reading again. I had more control, and could explore books I actually found interesting with my limited free time, and was able to actually enjoy them without having to worry about overanalyzing everything to death. I explored genres based on movies and TV I enjoyed and started to read more widely over time. After reading some blurbs, I also read a number of the classics they try to shove down your throat in school. And many of those I actually enjoyed, without the threat of a grade hanging overhead. I'm sure I missed some greater themes, symbolism, or other small details, and I don't care. Gatsby can kill me with his green light for all I care.

[LilyBLily]

My mother took us to the public library and she bought us many books. Reading, literature, history, and languages were always big in our house--even though I'm pretty sure I watched every single Western TV series ever produced, too, and all us kids ran around outside all day and into the evening. So when did we have time to read? But we did read, because there always are moments when there's "nothing else to do."

School didn't deter me from reading; it introduced me to keeping my own reading list, which I have kept all my life (fiction only). Sometimes I look at the list and think I surely wasted my time on many unmemorable stories not particularly well-written. Now I make my own contributions to that genre.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I remember we had to read The Catcher in the Rye and I still believe that is one of the most overrated books of all time.  I mean, were we supposed to identify with the protagonist because he was a teenager?  I didn't.  I just longed for him to get hit by a bus so the book would be over.

You and I share a brain when it comes to this book.   

The only time I was ever really into it was when it looked like the elevator pimp was going to beat Holden to a pulp.  That would have been a great way to begin the upward phase of the character's Harmon Circle: have him wake up in the hospital, reevaluate his life in something like a "Come to Jesus" moment, and then set himself to making amends and developing virtues and whatnot.

(For those who aren't familiar with the Harmon Circle, I'm referring to Step 5.)

[cecilia_writer]

Kids probably don't have as much time to read for fun now because of the relentless pursuit of other activities. Growing up in a small village without tv or computers,  I'm sure I used to read as much to fill in my spare time as for any other reason. However my two kids have always read a lot - and been read to - and as the younger one was exactly the right age to enjoy the Harry Potter books when they first came out, he is completely addicted to fiction and did a degree in English. The older one tended to read more non-fiction. I see my grandson surrounded by books and just learning to read for himself. I don't know what he will be like at 9 but my son reads stories to him every night so I hope he will carry on with it.

[Vijaya]

It begins at home. When parents read for pleasure, so do the kids. We raised our kids without any TV or video games for the first 10-12 yrs of their lives, so books were the entertainment. These childhood habits remain even though they use their computers and phones heavily, both in their 20s now.

[LilyBLily]

That's true, Vijaya. We always had books around and we read books to our child and gave them books. As a result of that and the social isolation of living way out in the country, ours learned to read without a teacher. I, on the other hand, despite all the books in my house growing up, couldn't really read a whole sentence in the second grade. Not even a caption on a picture in a book--I tried, and I embarrassed myself. Pitiful, and yet I am a lifelong avid reader.

There's plenty of time for kids to read today while being dragged to the innumerable extracurricular classes and sports they're programmed into. They're not driving the car, after all.

[RiverRun]

I'm late to the discussion and I did not read the whole article. But I still feel a need to vent my opinion:) Literacy in America has been declining for a good long time, in part from the reasons mentioned earlier.

But do the experts have memories? The 8 and 9-year-olds of today were 4 and 5 during the pandemic. Many of them were not getting serious school instruction and then got tossed back into school with over-worked teachers and bunch of other kids who were behind. It may be that a significant number are just behind on reading and can't read middle-grade books yet.

[R. C.]

I remember we had to read The Catcher in the Rye and I still believe that is one of the most overrated books of all time.  I mean, were we supposed to identify with the protagonist because he was a teenager?  I didn't.  I just longed for him to get hit by a bus so the book would be over.

You and I share a brain when it comes to this book.   

The only time I was ever really into it was when it looked like the elevator pimp was going to beat Holden to a pulp.  That would have been a great way to begin the upward phase of the character's Harmon Circle: have him wake up in the hospital, reevaluate his life in something like a "Come to Jesus" moment, and then set himself to making amends and developing virtues and whatnot.

(For those who aren't familiar with the Harmon Circle, I'm referring to Step 5.)

Agreed, it is aggressively overrated. As are many other “must read” or “mandatory reading” assignments. I don’t want to start a fight, so I’ll keep my “that was not good” list to myself.

R.C.

[spin52]

Lord, yes. Catcher in the Rye was awful. I didn't read it as a teenager, but I think even then I would have thought Holden a spoiled brat.

Anyway, I read obsessively as a child and recently found some of my neatly annotated reading lists from summer vacation. The local library gave out some kind of reward if you read a certain number of books, as I remember.
Both my sons, now in their 30s, were avid readers although their taste varied greatly. About the only books they both liked were the Harry Potter series. Now my two older grandchildren (11 and 9) are readers as well, which makes Christmas and birthday present buying easy, and hopefully they'll carry that through into their adult lives. The five-year-old isn't quite there yet, but I'll encourage him, too.

[Post-Crisis D]

The local library gave out some kind of reward if you read a certain number of books, as I remember.

I vaguely remember that too, but I'm not sure if it was the school library or local library.  Maybe both?  Not sure what the reward was.  I'm kind of thinking a poster?  Like a Scholastic poster which goes back to the school library idea.  Though maybe the posters were just included in the Scholastic whatevers that we got?

Hmm.  I think I may still have some Scholastic Bucks or Book Bucks or something.  I wonder if they are still redeemable?    LOL.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I'm late to the discussion and I did not read the whole article. But I still feel a need to vent my opinion:) Literacy in America has been declining for a good long time, in part from the reasons mentioned earlier.

But do the experts have memories? The 8 and 9-year-olds of today were 4 and 5 during the pandemic. Many of them were not getting serious school instruction and then got tossed back into school with over-worked teachers and bunch of other kids who were behind. It may be that a significant number are just behind on reading and can't read middle-grade books yet.

I saw this comment back when you originally posted it, and I meant to respond at the time, but I got sidetracked and it slipped my mind.  I just wanted to add that I wholeheartedly agree.  I said back in 2020 that the "remote schooling" that the public schools were attempting to do in their ham-fisted and slapdash fashion was doomed and just a horrible idea all around.  My neighbor's a teacher, and she told me some pretty horrific stories.  It would have been better to just shut the schools down altogether rather than do what they tried to do.  I still think that, and I think it will be decades before we understand the full consequences of it.