TEXT B Children in the UK are not
reading enough at home, favouring television and computer games instead,
according to new research. The survey conducted earlier this
month by Nestle Box Tops for Books, which asked parents about their children’ s
reading habits, found that half of UK children spend less than two hours reading
per week. A further one in 10 had not read a book in the past month, and of
those who do read regularly, one in four avoid non-fiction titles. More than
half of the parents surveyed believed their children should read more
non-fiction books. "It is essential that young children read at
least one book a week and, in particular, educational books," said family
counsellor Jenni Trent Hughes. But others believe such a stem
approach to reading may not help children. "We can mm children off it by simply
saying it’ s something they must be doing," said Amelia Foster, who runs Reading
Connects for the National Literacy Trust, an organisation that encourages
reading for pleasure to enhance classroom achievement. Ms Foster
said the survey results might not give children enough credit. Previous studies
have found that 75% of 11 to 18-year-olds enjoyed reading, and 83% read in their
spare time. Past reading surveys have found distinct differences
in the reading habits of boys and girls. Girls tend to be more enthusiastic
about reading in general, but particularly fiction (perhaps helping to explain
why Jacqueline Wilson, author of Sleepovers and Bad Girls, is the most borrowed
author from public libraries), while boys are drawn to books about a place,
subject, or hobby that interests them. Nicola Davies, author of
Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable, said while working with
underachieving boys she found they responded to non-fiction better than fiction.
"You can get them to write poetry but they won’ t read it;" she said.
Ms Davies would like to see children’ s non-fiction take off in the way
adult non-fiction has in recent years, thanks largely to titles like Longitude
that employ strong narratives. This may encourage boys to read more, she
said. "There’ s a lot of really crap non-fiction out there. It’
s absolute ’ paint by numbers, pile them high, and sell them cheap’. But it’ s
not really addressing the issue. Non-fiction as it is cutting offa whole route
into reading, especially for boys," added Ms Davies. But the
consequences of these trends may run deeper. Some worry that steering clear of
non-fiction may effect the development of a child’ s imagination, even going so
far as to impact their future career choices. Nicola Jones
credits her choice of studying zoology at university to her childhood
Encyclopedia Britannica. "There was this fantastic bit in the back on
transparencies of human bodies, and it absolutely fired my imagination about the
workings of the human body. Children’ s imagination needs all sorts of fuel. And
that’ s what’ s going to drive them, give them intrinsic motivation. It’ s what
makes your intellectual cars go." For this reason Ms Jones is planning a
conference next year that will address how non-fiction can be transformed into
something more children will want to read. Which of the following belongs to non-fiction