Subject: Literacy / Reading Strategies
Age Group: Y3 / Y4 and higher
Topic: Literacy
Synopsis: New Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce took over Radio 4’s Today programme on Christmas Eve 2024 to share his fears that the drop in young children being read to, or reading for pleasure, is causing a happiness recession. The good news is that reading together is a very easy route back to happiness reports Nicola Baird.

Librarian’s view:
Who might say this? “We know that children who read for pleasure, and who are read to, gain all kinds of benefits.” The answer is as likely to be educators as librarians, but this time it was the current Waterstones’ Children’s Laureate 2024-2026, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
In addition to dreaming up the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony (a collab with Danny Boyle), Cottrell-Boyce has written some fabulous children’s books including Millions (which won the Carnegie Medal); Framed; an Ian Fleming sequel called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again and episodes of Dr Who. So, when Cottrell-Boyce warns that the fall in children enjoying reading means, “We are at risk of losing a generation,” many people pay attention. (Quoted in the Literacy Trust, 4/11/24 https://literacytrust.org.uk/blog/why-arent-children-reading-in-their-free-time/ )
This made it extra special to hear Cottrell-Boyce guest editing Radio 4’s Today show on Christmas Eve as he focused on the ways books make us happy, right from babyhood. During the show he used his own experience (he has seven children) visited early years centres and heard from a neuroscientist at the University of East London’s BabyDevLab.
“I’ve always had that feeling that if you read a lot, and you read with your child, then you’re building all the apparatus of happiness within your child,” he said explaining his Children’s Laureate focus on the early years, whilst urging all of us to read to children even when they are very young.
“It’s not the content, it’s the moment of sharing,” says Cottrell-Boyce adding you just need to, “Open a picture book and make the sounds, it’s play. It’s fine to read the same book a million times and do the same voices. I can make Dear Zoo (by Rod Campbell) last an hour! You’ve got to find the book your child will love.”
Frank quoted the shocking stat that: “50 per cent of our kids come to school without being read to. It’s such a sharing moment between a parent or a carer and a child. If you’re missing out on that, you’re missing out on something essential.”
Research has already shown that being read to helps develop language skills – those kids that miss out can arrive with a “million word gap” by the time school starts. Here’s how: (See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30908424/ )
- If a child is never read to, they will have heard approximately 4,662 words by the time they are 5-years-old.
- If a child is read to 1-2 times per week, they will have heard approximately 63,570 words by the time they are 5-years-old.
- If a child is read to 3-4 times per week, they will have heard approximately 169,525 words by the time they are 5-years-old.
- If a child is read to daily, they will have heard approximately 296,660 words by the time they are 5-years-old.
- If a child is read 5 books a day, they will have heard approximately 1,483,300 words by the time they are 5-years-old. (Figs from https://theellisschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1000000-word-gap.pdf )
But on his guest edit Cottrell-Boyce also wanted to share the ways reading to the youngest children adds to everyone’s happiness.
“Telling stories anchors happiness in you,” says Frank making clear that not reading books means parents and children miss out on this simple route to happiness.
While discussing the average reading age of adults in Newcastle and Gateshead (which is just 10-years-old), with Radio 4’s Amol Rajan on the Today podcast, Cottrell-Boyce is adamant that unconfident readers have been cut off from happiness.
“Happiness is a really crucial thing that we just don’t talk about enough. Happy people don’t burn down libraries. We never notice those extra values about reading a story. One health visitor said to me ‘a storybook is not a meal it’s a recipe’… when you sing to a child, or tell a story to a child, especially if you tell it repeatedly, you’re slowing the world down, you’re tuning them into the rhythms of being.”
It’s clear that Frank is certain that reading to the littlest children is, “Building the apparatus of happiness’.
Hopefully this clarity from the Children’s Laureate about the importance of reading books with little children will become something that many more parents (and carers) will be willing to give a go.
CONTACTS AND LINKS
Frank Cottrell Boyce on the Radio 4 podcast discussing his guest edit https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0k69b3t
See suggestions from SLS on https://sls-uk.org/ Here are some of our favourites:
- Board books for babies https://sls-uk.org/are-babies-too-little-for-books/
- Books that are perfect for reluctant readers https://sls-uk.org/reading-adventures/
- Picture books for older readers https://sls-uk.org/when-pictures-tell-a-thousand-words%ef%bf%bc/
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