Books stop being fun. As founder and manager of the Australian Centre for Youth Literature in Melbourne, Nieuwenhuizen has commissioned the first detailed research into attitudes of young Australians to reading for pleasure. I don't think we should be too evangelical and say everyone should be a reader. But if we focus on those who just need a nudge and shift their perceptions towards it being okay to be a reader, then the hard cases will come across. Most worrying is the finding that while 45 per cent of primary school students enjoy reading, read frequently and see reading in a positive light, only 24 per cent of secondary students are as enthusiastic.
Older boys are more likely than girls to find reading boring and nerdy.
While primary school students have regular free reading time at school, and teachers read aloud from books the class enjoys, the focus in high school is on the study of specific texts, with essays and exams taking the pleasure out of reading. Older students are thrown into adult libraries, which become study resources rather than leisure centres. Parents, too, are less active in encouraging teenagers to read and adolescents are distracted by many other activities, from part-time jobs to hanging out with friends. The report finds eight out of 10 adults strongly agree that it is important for young people to read for pleasure, and its many recommendations are aimed at teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists and parents. This child associated books with standing at the teacher's desk, reading aloud and being corrected.