Last week my two younger kids were in bed, but they were having trouble getting to sleep. That was mainly because some of their classmates were still playing loudly in the street below our house. The youngest of the kids still playing out was eight. And it was 8.30pm, so I thought it probably appropriate that they go home and possibly even consider going to bed themselves.
When I proposed this to them, they were incredulous. They didn’t want to go to sleep yet. So I suggested that perhaps they could get into their pajamas and read a book before bedtime. The eight year old then emphatically told me:
Books are for BABIES!
A report from the National Literacy Trust has been in the news this week, talking about how book ownership is linked to educational attainment. We have lots of work to do here if the children of our parish are going to reach their potential. And be able to read their bibles so that they can know the living Word.
The Vicar's Wife 
The Charity that I work for runs projects to get children and young people into reading. We work in schools, community centres, libraries and even in home on a one to one basis with looked after children reading aloud with them helping them to enjoy the pleasure of reading and build confidence. This year we distributed 50,000 free copies of The Unforgotten Coat as part of our shared read project.
http://thereader.org.uk/reading-revolution/our-read/
I was particularly saddened to read this article.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23955131-scandal-of-the-homes-with-not-a-single-book-to-read.do
I totally agree, there is lots of work to be done to bring the pleasure of reading back and equip children and young people to use it every day.
When I worked with a group of year six boys some years ago, they told me that the didn’t need to read – they already had a job with their dads and fencing didn’t need reading. Owning a book would have made no difference to their desire to read. It was only when I brought in a fictional payslip and asked them what they made of it that they began to see some use in being able to check they weren’t ripped off! I have found getting children to read involves meeting them where they are – I have started children reading with the TV times, road signs, car manuals, recipes and cereal packets.
Some have failed to read because they were never given a clue to breaking the code of words (which good synthetic phonics does now) and they just could not remember what a word said.
The enjoyment of books has to compete with instant access of TV, video games and films. Reading is hard work! Good story telling is one of the most undervalued skills and so many other cultures do it much better than us. ‘Open the Book’ http://www.openthebook.net/home.php is a good way of introducing the bible to children.
Very revealing. I’ve always loved reading and even before I became a Christian, was gripped by the lives, worlds and experiences of people different to me. Even though they are (sometimes) solitary past times, I think books help us to understand, empathise and communicate better with others. As Christians however, the Bible is our life’s blood and learning to read it is a joy and a necessity. Without it our kids and we ourselves are lost.