Are Kids Reading Less, Or Is It Just Me?
I attended a presentation at the 2024 MLA/DLA Conference that was both
terrific and
terrible. It was a wonderful presentation. What it presented was
disturbing.
Marcus Zimalt is a librarian with Anne Arundel County Public Schools.
Subjectively, it
seemed to him that not only were his students reading less, but even
his own children. When he noticed (the few) kids reading it tended to be simplistic graphic
novels or “comfort food” books, big on illustrations with basic vocabulary.
The data bore this out. Anne Arundel County Public Schools, with its
mixture of
urban/suburban/rural families representing different races and income
brackets, showed the
following statistics:
Total AACPS Fiction Checkouts by Year:
2013: 411, 381
2019: 388, 579
2023: 261, 414
This represents a 37% decrease since 2013, and a 33% decrease since
Covid. As Marcus
Zimalt pointed out, students aren’t reading less so much since 2013 as
they are since Covid-19.
Zimalt focused on the checkouts of Fiction because it engages the imagination,
requiring
the reader to see the world through another’s point-of-view. It
cultivates empathy along with critical thinking, sorely needed in a modern society bitterly divided.
Fiction circulation peaks in 4 th and 5 th grades, with the biggest
drop occurring in the
transition to middle school. Here are the numbers: fiction circulation
in 4 th and 5 th grades are over 53,000, dropping to 16, 823 in 6 th grade. The decline is steady in
each successive grade until senior year, with 1,101 fiction checkouts. More second graders check
out fiction books in one year than all high schoolers combined.
AACPS statistics reflect national trends. In 1984, 35% of 13 year-olds
read for fun
“almost every day,” while 8% responded “almost never.” In the Stranger
Things Opposite World
of 2020, only 17% of 13 year-olds read for fun, while 29% answered
“almost never.”
There are gender differences. While both girls and boys read at an
abysmal rate, the boys
are worse. Breaking down fiction circulation by gender, boys make up
43% of checkouts,
dropping to 36% in middle school and 30% in high school.
Zimalt points to two major factors contributing to the decline: the
noxious combination of
lockdown and iPhone during the Covid-19 pandemic. Teenagers spend an
average of 7 hours and
22 minutes a day in front of screens, not counting school-related work.
This accounts for 43% of
their waking hours. He also speculated that some of the blame lies with
our educational system
by quoting the following:
(When I was a kid)
“the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging
emotionally with
them as a way to develop the requisite skills. Now the focus on reading
analytically seems
to be squashing that organic enjoyment….
This hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price: The love of books
and storytelling is
being lost …
There’s a whole generation of kids who associate reading with
assessment now.”
Katharine Marsh – The Atlantic.
From my experience, perhaps the library world bears some
responsibility, too, with its
increased emphasis on “information services,” which is but a part of
literacy and ultimately
wisdom.
I have been, and still am to some degree, an advocate of the notion
that letting children
read whatever they want is the best way to cultivate lifelong readers,
since they will associate
reading with “fun.” My daughter will be in sixth grade next year. When
I was her age, I read
mostly comic books and pro-wrestling magazines. My son, currently in
second grade, loves the
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series – wonderful books appropriate for an
8-year old. But Marcus
Zimalt convinced me that children also need gentle nudging. If they
liked RL Stine, maybe
they’ll like Stephen King. The Shining was my first “real” horror book,
and I read it when I was
twelve – maybe even eleven. It’s still one of my favorites.
Zimalt further recommends actively “selling” chapter books through book talks and eye-
catching J Fiction displays. Make sure these books with attractive covers face outward, create
book tables, and otherwise lose any guilt of “Barnes and Nobelizing” your sections. Add staff
and patron recommendation tags. Look into generifying your collections and don’t forget to
watch the data. Finally, embrace your vital role as a library worker to “grow readers.”
