Alice Reedy and David Reedy
In 2024, we visited two East London primary schools with the aim to better understand what influences children’s independent reading choices when they read for pleasure (RfP). We used semi-structured interviews to hear from children in three different age groups (ages approximately 6, 8 and 10) and spoke to 36 children in total. Before interviewing them, we observed the children freely choosing reading material from a range of over one hundred pre-determined texts (selected in order to reflect a range of text-types, genres and diverse characters) and were then able to ask the children about how they made their choices.
Part of our rationale for undertaking this study was, despite how much research currently exists around reading for pleasure in schools, there has been little insight into children’s perspectives on how they know/decide what they want to read and the beliefs and attitudes that underpin their choices. We felt that this research could provide valuable insight for educators in how to ensure that the books made available to children were ones that would appeal to them.
After our conversations with the children, we identified seven areas influencing their choices of reading material:
Familiarity
The younger children involved in the study often chose books that they had previously read and enjoyed, in school or at home. They would reference these frequently in the discussion. For example, Idris (6) chose The Gruffalo and The Tiger That Came To Tea. When asked why he chose the latter he said; ‘Er, cos like the tiger... I’m gonna look for the part that I like.’
The older the children were, the less likely they were to choose a book they had already read. However, some said that they had chosen new, unseen texts by familiar or favourite authors, suggesting previous enjoyment of an author informed their choice.
Representation of self in text
We identified multiple instances where children showed that their choice was a response to recognising an aspect of themselves in the text.
Grace (age 8), for example, chose Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. She explained that she chose it ‘Because Africa is part of my country and I’m from Nigeria… It’s beautiful and pretty like my country. I really love my culture so much.’
Esther (age 6), chose It’s Her Story: Shirley Chisolm. She told us ‘Because it’s kind of interesting and she was fighting for the black people to be... to be... paid fairly.’
These two children’s ethnic backgrounds are recorded by their schools as Black-Nigerian and Other Black African respectively. Grace sent a clear message with her choices and words that she was excited to see herself and her culture reflected in the text that she chose, and later goes on to say that she does not think there are enough books like this in her school. Esther chose a series of four books which all featured women or girls of the global majority on the front cover, showing her choices were influenced by the racial identity of the characters/figures.
There were multiple occurrences of children of all ages choosing texts where the character, or characters, on the cover shared a distinct characteristic with them, such as gender, ethnicity or a combination of both and this was often commented on directly by the children as a reason for their choice. There was a clear desire from these children to have access to books that they feel reflect their own self and identity.
Reflection of own interests
Children would often respond to questions about their book choice by noting that it was about something they ‘liked’. For example, Leo (age 10) said he chose Baller Boys, ‘because it’s about football and I like football,’ while Oscar (age 6) chose Helping a friend: Alice the Aspiesaurus, explaining it was ‘because I like dinosaurs’. The children were often excited during the browsing process when they found texts that reflected these interests, and this frequently led to very quick choices- particularly with books relating to football.
We noted this particular popularity of books about football and felt that the initial text selection provided did not include enough football books, resulting in many boys in the first school trying to choose the same football-focused novel (Baller Boy). By the time the second school was visited, a few more football stories had been added, including one with a female main character. This was immediately chosen by two of the girls in the second sample who were interested in girls’ football.
Engagement with blurb
Interestingly none of the children in the youngest groups mentioned the blurb or were observed to engage with them when choosing. Two of the 8-year-olds mentioned reading the blurb as a factor that influenced their decision-making process, and this was also the case for four of the 10-year-old children. While this is a very small sample, it does suggest that as children get older, they become more likely to engage with the blurb of a text as a tool to help them decide what to read.
Genre
The younger children often expressed a simple desire to find ‘funny’ or ‘scary’ texts, and older children a similar preference .The older children often mentioned adventure stories in particular, and ‘magical’ and ‘mystery’ stories were also popular. However, even when prompted, the children used a limited vocabulary when talking about genre; language such as fantasy, science fiction, poetry, superhero, comedy, biography, crime etc. was never mentioned. We would suggest that a more developed vocabulary would be helpful for children to be more explicit about the kinds of stories they liked to read, and will be addressing this theme in future research.
Perception of own reading development
Children of all ages showed that they were aware of their current competences as developing readers. They were clear about not choosing texts that were too hard, too long or too easy. The older children in particular stated that they wanted to challenge themselves and would avoid texts that did not do so.
Ellie (8) pointed at Amari and the Night Brothers and said she wouldn’t read it because it was too long for her. While Avani (10) explained ‘I want to challenge myself really with long books and try to finish them. Cos sometimes what I do is I put a timer on and see how long it takes me to read a book, to finish a book.’ The children were demonstrating that they had an understanding of themselves as readers which included being aware of their own reading development and capacity.
Importance of design of the texts and associated images and pictures
Throughout all of the interviews, children drew attention to the crucial importance of visual aspects (such as colour, design, illustration, size of the book and typeface) as factors that impacted their text choice both positively and negatively.
The younger children had differing views about the colourful cover of Rainbow Grey. Telia (8) said that she was attracted by the colours on the cover but Rayan (8) had the opposite view. He stated that he would not have chosen the book ‘because it’s like too colourful and clouds and like have some leaves on some of them’. James (10) explained that a particular book ‘caught my eye because of how colourful it was.’
The cover design and illustrations were, unsurprisingly, significant in drawing the attention of the children and exploring further or passing on quickly to something more interesting. Avani (10) talked about the cover of Rainbow Grey: ‘I like all the stars and the swirls and how they done the rainbow’.
Conclusion and Implications
Multiple themes and factors can be seen to simultaneously affect children’s thought processes when choosing something to read. The constellation of strands that influenced the choices the children made were intertwined with their own identity as a reader at that moment in their lives. For example, one child, who chose a book with a female footballer on the cover, expressed that she was influenced by her interest in football, her excitement to see a reflection of herself as a female football player in the text and by the length of the text providing sufficient challenge for her.
The implications for schools and classrooms, drawing on the above analysis, include the following:
School book stocks should include familiar texts and authors: educators should know what texts children will have previously encountered in previous years and should combine this knowledge information on which of these texts children enjoyed the most. They can then use their findings to adjust the showcasing of books in the classroom to include these previously enjoyed texts, as well as new texts by the authors that wrote them.
Educators should ensure that there are plentiful texts available for children that reflect the children’s diverse identities: educators need to reflect on and identify the diverse backgrounds of each child in their class through data-analysis and pupil voice, and use this information to ensure the books in their class/school selection are representative of the children who will encounter and engage with them.
Educators need to use ongoing discussions with children, and observations, to consider children’s current individual and general interests/hobbies, they can then use this knowledge to identify books which include these interests and showcase them in the classroom/school.
All of the above will require educators to engage in a self-audit and improvement process in regard to their knowledge of high-quality children’s literature, in order to ensure that they have an awareness of suitable authors and texts that reflect familiarity, diversity and interests.
These implications will only be possible through educators engaging in a partnership with children, where the perspectives and individualities of these children are explored, discussed and valued. Actively listening and responding to what children tell us is imperative for supporting their reading habits.
Alice Reedy is Senior Lecturer (Primary PGCE Programme) at the University of East London. Alice was formally a Primary School Teacher and Senior Leader.
David Reedy is a Past President of the UK Literacy Association (UKLA). David was formally the Principal Adviser for Primary Schools in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.