THE INTERESTS OF CHILDREN (AGED 10–11) IN BOOKS

Summary. 1. — An investigation was undertaken in March, 1955, into the interests in books (excluding textbooks) of children aged 10–11. 2. — Children were asked to rate the books they had read at home or in school during the last mouth. From their replies it wits found that in school it was usually a little more enjoyable to listen to the teacher reading aloud than to read silently, and more enjoyable to read silently than to listen to other pupils reading, though this did not apply equally to all social areas. It was noted that a larger amount of time was spent on silent reading in schools in poor neighbourhoods than elsewhere. A classification of books read aloud by the teacher showed that teachers generally followed the established patterns of the accepted children's classics and of popular current children's stories. 3. — It was found that for 95 per writ. of the children, the home provided the best environment for the private reading of books, there being less distraction and interruption than in school. Perhaps as a corollary, it was found that children more frequently gave high ratings to books read at home than to those read in school. On the other hand, a few children stated that they had read no book at home during the last month, and for boys in poor social areas there was, on average, less reading of books at home than at school. More than half of the children mere active members of n public library, except in schools serving housing estates where the proportion was about 1 in 4. Some children had ceased to be active members, bring dissatisfied with the library service for various reasons. 4. — Reading preferences based on stated likings for classes of books showed that there were more differences between boys and girls than between groups of children from dissimilar social areas, particularly in their attitudes to school stories, to, some classes of non-fiction and to poetry. There was general agreement on the technique followed by children in choosing a book. It showed that children generally preferred to make their own selection, but required time to judge of the contents of a book before doing so. There was a widespread feeling that illustrations tended to spoil the story. In view of the complex pattern of children's individual likes and dislikes, it would appear necessary to give children of this age the widest possible choice from a variety of children's classics, adult classics, contemporary children's fiction, reference books, non-fiction including biography, and children's annuals. 5. — Films, television and radio have a guiding influence over children's reading by stimulating many of them to read the book after they have seen or heard the dramatised version, and most of the reading reported in this survey was of children's classics. Films gave the greatest stimulus to boys' reading and television to girls. ' On the data here available, it is not possible to say whether children spent less time on reading because of the advent of television into the home, but there is evidence to show that where there was a television set in a house the tendency was for children to spend more time in viewing than in reading.