Kids & Family Reading Report ~ 4th Ed.

The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%).Scholastic published their Kids & Family Reading Report, 4th Edition today with results both expected and surprising.  Check out Scholastic’s website for the full report.

A few highlights:

• The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%).
• Kids say that ebooks are better than print books when they do not want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are out and about/traveling; print is better for sharing with friends and reading at bedtime.
• Among girls, there has been a decline since 2010 in frequent readers (42% vs. 36%), reading enjoyment (71% vs. 66%), and the importance of reading books for fun (62% vs. 56%).
• Frequency of reading books for fun is significantly lower for kids age 12–17 than for children age 6–11; frequency of reading books for school is also lower for kids age 12–17 than for kids age 6–11.
• Having reading role-model parents or a large book collection at home has more of an impact on kids’ reading frequency than does household income.

There are some interesting results within this study and if you download the report, it is easy to read, but it is 66 pages, so I haven’t gotten a chance to read through it all.  The most interesting fact that has come out of this study is that having reading role-models at home or a large book collection readily available to a child has more of an impact on reading than household income.  Unfortunately, families struggling financially often are unable to provide a large book collection to their children.  Thankfully public libraries are abundant throughout the United States which allows families to check out books as often as they would like.