The latest What Kids Are Reading report for 2021-2022 showed that the number of books read by children increased by 24%, with 27,265,657 books read in total.
This surge in reading was attributed to new social media trends such as the BookTok community on TikTok, which stimulated interest in books such as Alice Oseman’s series Heartstopper.
Jeff Kinney and David Walliams retained the lead in popularity among primary school pupils, while at secondary level Kinney maintained popularity, followed by Walliams and then J.K. Rowling.
The report concluded that, although pupils improved in reading ability as they got older, the difficulty of the books they read rose much slower than expected.
💬 Throughout secondary school, pupils were still reading books at almost the same level of difficulty as upper primary pupils, researchers found.
Source: Children read almost 25% more books last year, UK and Ireland study finds
Reader Updated 