����Vlog

“You’re never going to dream of going through the wardrobe if you haven’t got a wardrobe,” argues Frank Cottrell-Boyce. “And you’re never going to relate to stories about there being no place like home if you have to keep your clothes in a bin bag ready for the next move.”

It’s the kind of statement we have come to expect from the children’s laureate, but it might be surprising - given the current dominant narrative - that it comes in discussion about whether screens have caused the global dip in reading for pleasure.

Cottrell-Boyce, who is preparing for the end of his tenure as children’s laureate, argues that while screens are a factor, they aren’t the single cause. Poverty and housing insecurity, as referenced above, are fundamental issues, he says.

That’s not to say he has given up on getting children reading; quite the opposite. Since 2024, Cottrell-Boyce has been promoting the importance of shared reading for children across the country.

His time in post has come at a decisive moment: the National Literacy Trust has found that the proportion of young people reading for pleasure has hit a 20-year low, while BookTrust says families are increasingly struggling to read together daily.

Why are fewer children reading for pleasure?

The findings have prompted an MPs’ inquiry, and the government made 2026 the National Year of Reading in an attempt to shift the dial.

Cottrell-Boyce concedes that screens have had an impact on those reading statistics. But the author of several children’s books, including Millions, Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth and sequels to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, says it is important to understand why.

“Two things have happened - Covid really accelerated kids’ relationships with screens because the screen was such a lifeboat,” he says.

“But schools have really accelerated it as well. So much homework and so much reading has been migrated on to screens without anybody thinking about the consequences of that.”

Citing the recent US court case in which a jury found Meta and Google liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction, he hopes a cultural shift is coming in how we perceive and use social media platforms.

It’s an issue currently under a lot of scrutiny - guidance telling schools to stop pupils using phones will now become statutory under a last-minute amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, and the government’s consultation on whether it should introduce an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s will close in just over a week.

The Education Policy Institute has found that infants with the greatest amount of screen time are significantly less likely, later on, to regularly read to or go on trips outside.

“The modern world is so overwhelming,” Cottrell-Boyce says, “and we’re making it more overwhelming.

“It’s frictionless, endless delivery of stimulation.

“There is nothing in the world that has a lower sensory input and a richer experience than a book,” he adds. “If you’re an alien coming and looking at how childhood has changed, it’s how much time our children are spending completely passive, just consuming, just being an audience.

“Reading is a far more active thing.”

Early intervention

The author believes that intervention to fix the issues around reading should come early. The early years are the key to tackling the decline in reading for pleasure, he argues.

“There’s a logical solution, which is to start early, invest in the early years, and make sure that kids in those early years settings are exposed to books in a comfortable and enjoyable way.”

To do that, there probably needs to be some extra training in place for teachers and staff in nurseries to make sure they have the confidence “to make a book live”, Cottrell-Boyce says.

“I think the opportunity to experience the book as something enjoyable and something bonding and something warm needs to be there, not to do with increasing attainment.

“You need to know that it is a box of delights before you expect people to spend time learning to pick the lock.

“I’ve seen nurseries where books are really brought to life brilliantly. But that’s not every nursery, and it shouldn’t be a lottery.”

As children get older, Cottrell-Boyce thinks, the key to keeping them reading is sharing the enjoyment of it.

“You can’t teach pleasure - you can only share pleasure,” he says.

“So teachers who are ostentatiously reading, who talk about what they’re reading, who talk to each other about what they’re reading, can create a reading culture in their schools. I’ve seen it happen. It’s not impossible.”

Creating that enjoyment of reading is crucial, says the children’s laureate, but he knows schools and teachers face barriers in getting children to read more.

New Year 8 reading test

He hopes more funding for school libraries and the National Year of Reading will help to shift the conversation, but when I ask about ministers’ plans to introduce a new mandatory Year 8 reading test, his response is one of exasperation.

“For the last two years, I’ve been completely focused on the early years, and I’ve not been interested in educational attainment,” he says.

“I know that those things are important, but I’ve really tried to shift the dial around reading and its power as a bonding tool, as a source of happiness, and not to do with whatever the workplace is going to be.

“It’s really important they get the mechanical skill, but you’re always going to be in that dilemma, aren’t you? Making the teaching and acquiring of skills so miserable that you don’t ever want to use that skill again.”

The new reading test is one of the government’s flagship reforms to the curriculum, with data set to be shared with Ofsted and the government, but not published.

The policy has been met with little celebration from teaching unions, which argue that schools are already assessing reading at this age, and students would be better served by the resources to provide small-group sessions promoting reading for pleasure.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Cottrell-Boyce.

“You need to get the pleasure. You need to get the habit of enjoyment. You need to get the knowledge that this is something you love before you sit down and learn how to do it.”