Inspiring Young Readers
posted on 16 Nov 2025
Raising Readers in 2025: Boden and Torin
I have written about my two grandsons growing relationship with books several times over the last few years and thought it was time for an update. Now aged nine and seven, Boden and Torin are what are described by teachers as ‘established fluent readers’, in other words, they can read most texts aimed at their reading age independently. More importantly for me, they still enjoy reading regularly and often choose to do this at home without being nagged by adults.
So how has this happened? They both like reading at school but I believe that a lot of this is down to my son and daughter in law who have always read aloud to the boys. They don’t use the local library, because they have so many children’s books at home that it isn’t really necessary to add to them. They often receive new books as presents and I try to make links with what they might be learning about at school, because I have such a big personal collection. In other words, they understand that books are part of their cultural landscape and that they can offer them something that is very different to a screen.
Like many grandparents, I am worried about the lure of screens because I can of course see the appeal of dazzling, fast paced visual online gaming, especially when most of their friends are immersed in that world. Forbidding access is clearly risky because that makes it all the more desirable as well as potentially making them feel too different. The solution seems to be negotiating restricted but reasonable access along with lots of other activities, including reading books. This is difficult to get right because they are both busy and active boys with lots of interests.
They are both big fans of popular graphic novels such as the ‘Dogman’ by Dav Pilkey and the ‘Bunny versus Monkey’ series by Jamie Smart and they have lots of others on their shelves as this is a growing area of publishing. They still like looking at pop-up books and other intriguing picture books, particularly when encouraged to linger over the graphics and impressive paper engineering. They share a weekly subscription to ‘The Phoenix’ comic which is a good mix of stories and non- fiction. I have a big stash of old ‘Beano’ and ‘Dandy’ comics and annuals which I drip feed when I make my weekly visit and they always devour these with enthusiasm. Yes – these are relatively easy reads, but I love to see them being enjoyed. Long may it last!
Getting them to engage with less visual texts is still a challenge which I understand is all part of the relatively short concentration span that is being noticed by teachers in schools. This is where reading aloud at home can be very helpful and when I recently read them ‘Toto’ by Michael Morpurgo over a period of time, they definitely responded well and begged for more chapters. Although there were some beautiful illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark, the language was rich and descriptive requiring plenty of imagination and discussion along the way. This would have been a different experience if they were reading silently and am not sure that they would have enjoyed it as much.
So, sustaining their interest in physical books is something to work on because I worry that they will be increasingly lured away. Nevertheless, I recently joined the family to listen to my son reading aloud several chapters from ‘The Bolds’ by Julian Clary at bedtime. Watching the two boys snuggled up beside him as he performed all the funny voices made me feel happy that these cosy memories would stay with them. I will give another update in a year or so and am pretty confident that it will still be positive.
Karen Argent
November 2025