There is significant research evidence which shows that children who are actively encouraged to read at home by parents and carers will grow into confident readers and cultivate a love of books.

Have a look at this summary of key research (Word, 37kb) from the National Literacy Trust (NLT) website.

There is also a report from the NLT and Reading Connects (pdf, 80kb) on Children’s and young people’s reading habits: the who, what, why, where and when, where enthusiastic readers reported that they were encouraged to read a lot by their mother and father.

Research shows too that young people who have access to print at home are more engaged in reading – and that students who read for pleasure do well at school.
(Reading for Change 2001 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. See this BBC article (launches new website) about the Reading for Change report.

Libraries supporting family reading

Public libraries with all their expert knowledge of children’s books and reading, and through the provision of a wide range of books, play a major part in supporting family reading.

Launched in 2006 there is a Families Love Libraries programme, which seeks to uncover hidden patterns of family use, so that libraries can better understand how families use libraries. It will then be possible to use this evidence to widen family participation and market libraries’ services for families more effectively to all parents and carers, including, for example, grandparents, and childminders.

See also the Families Love Libraries website.

The Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) inspiring and supporting family reading

The SRC offers parents and carers a unique and pleasurable way of supporting their children’s reading during the summer holidays. It provides parents and carers with an opportunity to take an active part in their children’s reading. It enables families to share the magic of books and reading and enjoy a valuable learning experience together.

With the SRC parents, carers and children can

Choose reading material together
Read books together
Discover new authors and titles
Have fun together
Talk about reading and books together
Take part in SRC activities
Visit the library together
Spend time at the library together

Public libraries can support families taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge in many exciting and creative ways. They can provide

A family friendly environment that suits both adults and children
Highly skilled staff who have expert knowledge of children’s books and reader development
Exciting reading activities linked to the SRC for families to take part in over the summer holidays
Inspiring reading material including story books, information books, biographies, poetry books, joke books, comics, magazines and talking books.
An opportunity to meet other families to share reading ideas

Families and SRC: the outcomes

Encouraging family involvement with the SRC can result in the following outcomes:

For the library

More children taking part in the SRC
More children finishing the SRC
An increase in library membership, issues and visits to the library from local families
Building Library staff skills for promoting reading and the love of books
Supporting local and national reading agendas
Contributing to key programmes – particularly Every Child Matters
Developing strong partnership working with schools, Surestart, and Family Learning Teams

For children and their families

More children joining the challenge as a result of help from their parents and families
More children completing the challenge as a result of encouragement and interest from their parents and families
Families sharing reading because of the SRC
Family members enjoying reading together because of the SRC
Family members talking about reading together because of the SRC
Family members encouraging each other to read more because of the SRC
Family members reading more because of the SRC
Children and their parents and carers joining and using the library more because of the SRC