World Book Day is here and in recent years the public debate has centred on costumes, affordability and access to participation. But with children’s reading for enjoyment at one of its lowest recorded levels, are we doing enough to get our children reading again?
With the UK Government’s National Year of Reading 2026 now underway, there is a renewed emphasis on reigniting reading for pleasure. The campaign ethos is centred on reconnecting reading with the things that already inspire us, from playlists and football matches to films, rightly indicating that reading needs to be about feeling connected and represented in the books you choose.
According to the National Literacy Trust’s 2024 Annual Reading Survey, just over a third of children and young people say they enjoy reading in their free time; one of the lowest levels recorded since the charity began tracking the data. At the same time, Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes report highlights how deeply embedded online life has become in childhood with the majority of children regularly using video-sharing platforms and spending increasing amounts of time on screens.
Is the attention economy changing childhood?
Even on World Book Day, many of the characters seen on the school run originate not from books but from screen-based franchises, streaming platforms, gaming universes and viral online trends. The day is shared widely across social media with timelines filling up as the morning unfolds.
Online spaces can offer creativity, entertainment and connection. However, research increasingly links excessive short-form digital consumption with reduced attention span, sleep disruption and increased anxiety in some children.
By contrast, reading for pleasure has consistently been associated with improved wellbeing, stronger vocabulary development, enhanced empathy and higher long-term educational attainment. In an online environment shaped by algorithms designed to maximise engagement, reading offers children time and space.
(For more on this see our previous expert article here.)
Who gets to see themselves on the page?
Alongside concerns about reading frequency sits another important issue — representation.
While publishing has made progress in recent years, many families still report difficulty finding books that reflect modern Britain’s diversity whether that be LGBTQ+ families, single-parent households, neurodivergent children, migration stories or different cultural traditions.
The Penguin and Runnymede Trust report Lit in Colour found that fewer than 1% of GCSE students study a text by a writer of colour in England. The report also highlights significant underrepresentation of diverse authors and perspectives within mainstream literary education.
For children who feel “othered” for any reason from family structure to race, disability, faith or identity, representation in books becomes more than symbolic. When a child hears a story in the classroom that mirrors their own family or lived experience, something shifts, the burden of explanation lessens and difference becomes normalised.
(For more on this see our previous expert article here.)
Reclaiming childhood through stories.
At Big Heart Book Club, we want to use this moment to call for a renewed urgency in helping children reconnect with books.
We’re not calling for a rejection of technology, but for balance.
In recent years, children under 11 have become increasingly visible online and many are engaging with beauty trends, skincare routines and highly curated content from a very young age. This constant exposure to appearance-led and consumer-driven content places pressure on self-image.
By contrast books offer a different kind of engagement. Stories allow children to explore who they are and who they might become in a way that isn’t performative. They create space for reflection rather than comparison.
With the National Year of Reading underway, we’re encouraging parents, grandparents and care givers to make reading part of everyday life again, setting aside time for shared stories, choosing books that reflect both their child’s identity and experiences.
Big Heart Book Club is also working with schools, providing curated collections of inclusive books, supporting classroom initiatives and helping educators widen representation in their curriculum.
We invite schools and families to join our growing community, where we will share book recommendations, classroom resources and research on reading and wellbeing, with the aim of helping more children rediscover reading for pleasure.
World Book Day is important but the real work happens in the ordinary evenings, the quiet classroom moments and the books chosen without fanfare.
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