Not so long ago I read an article about the difficult transition that young readers might find from being read to and reading their own books and I completely sympathized with it. From loving books kids often show a loss of interest in reading when they move on to bulkier books. We went through this phase too when my son started reading on his own, initially he was excited by the fact he could read all those books that we used to read to him, but when his fluency got up to speed and he moved on to books that are structured with chapters and present longer stories he experienced a loss of interest. I guess he felt that he could now read well and he didn’t need to keep reading to improve. Fortunately it was just a phase and he now loves reading. It was a simple case of keep trying and developing a personal taste. He loves to read stories about far away countries and children from other cultures and the latest big thing is that he already has a favourite author. He was given The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo in spring and he has since read another three books by him. Michael Morpurgo is a great writer whose stories are sad and happy at the same time, but more than anything they feel very real. There is often a friendship between children and animal and the language used is not complicated.

My advise to parents of reluctant readers is to just keep trying to find stories the kids can relate to. Once children learn how to read they need to move on to the next phase which is to enjoy it. Some children find it easier than others, but I guess the message is always the same: there is a big world out there and books are full of amazing stories waiting to be discovered.