Jack Reacher should be taught in schools

[noblegiraffe]

Lee Child, the famous and prolific author of thrillers has been doing literacy workshops with prisoners based around his Jack Reacher novels.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/dec/19/lee-child-thrillers-uk-school-curriculum-literacy

He suggests that teaching children literary masterpieces is putting children off reading. "He said: “You should have whatever is compelling and whatever gets people into the habit of reading. Then you can have the fancy stuff later, of course, but don’t start with it.”"

I mean, he has a point, there is a crisis in reading among young people, particularly boys (65.5% of boys got a 4+ in English in the summer compared to 75.9% of girls and we know that being a reader improves outcomes across all GCSEs).

• "Just 1 in 3 (34.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024. Reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8 percentage points over the past year alone.

https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-reading-in-2024/

But I'm not sure what to do with this - Lee Child is finding that male prisoners are engaging with Jack Reacher in prison when there's not much else going on for them, would those same young men have engaged with it at school? On the other hand, his books are certainly more engaging than Of Mice and Men.

I was quite a sensitive child ,and I remember at primary school having countless nightmares because the teacher was reading the wolves of Willoughby chase to us each day at home time ..there was no escape,I was forced to listen
I'm sure that is also deeply rooted in me not reading as an adult.

I used to read Rudyard Kipling as a child and quite a few of his books the main protagonists are boys. It never put me off that I couldn’t identify with then.

I’ve read all jack reacher books from when his first book was published many years ago

I think if you want to engage children and especially boys then the character has to be someone they can sort of relate to and possibly look up to in some way

if you like Jack Reacher then

other good books by authors in that similar style are
Stephen leather Spider ( Dan Shepard series ) and one of his stand alone books my favourite Tango One

Simon Kernick ( Dennis Milne series ) but others in his collection are equally as good with a good female characters

mark dawson ( John Milton Series )

Also by Mark Dawson Beatrix Rose thrillers and the follow up with her daughter Isabella Rose

all write about men and women who are not above doing the right thing even if some might say it’s wrong 😂
often ex military / police security services
topics are relatable even the older books have stuff in them that not aged

Mine does, my DS's does, I know teachers who still teach it. I guess your school must have more money if it could afford to ditch all the class sets from when it was on GCSE.

What modern texts do you teach?

My school gave up teaching it years ago, long before Gove dictated that gcse texts should be by British authors, due to teachers' and students' concerns about, amongst other issues, use of the n word . I believe some schools still teach it at year 9; we teach Purple Hibiscus.

Yeah, that's not how GCSE English Lit lessons are all taught.

I haven’t read all of the Jack Reacher books but I’ve read some. There is one (Gone Tomorrow) that I found really dark!

I agree actually. I loved English at school and was quite happy to read the Classics, and even I found Chaucer dry AF. Equally, I love the Reacher series and can easily see how someone less into reading initially would find that sort of thing much more engaging and be more likely to get into the habit of reading for pleasure. Isn’t that the point of books in the end? You wouldn’t want to “dumb down” too much but i can see the logic in changing things up.

I think we need to recognise that there is a difference between reading to be entertained and reading to build vocabulary, comprehension and critical skills.

Not finding serious literature fun isn’t a reason to toss it in favour of crowdpleasers that don’t have any real meat to them. Equally I’m not in favour of disparaging easy reads that build comprehension and engage the imagination.

Both are important.

I loved the first 20 or so Teacher books, they unfortunately tailed off over recent years with the authorship being handed over.

If you like them try the Ben Hope series by Scott Mariani

This isn't a new idea. I've been a form tutor for 25 years and for all of them there has been some sort of strategy to get kids reading and enjoying it. Whether that's silent reading in tutor time, reading a book together, the tutor reading short stories to the tutor group, guided reading, in lesson 'drop and read' where they get to stop doing geography and read their book. What I can tell you in my experience is it makes very little difference if that love of reading isn't already there and that unfortunately comes from parents.

When my kids were little I volunteered to listen to readers in their primary school. The kids who read at home made great progress but you would probably be shocked by how many in each class were never listened to by their parents, week after week. There were even kids who just weren't sent home with a book bag and a reading book because the teacher said they never came back.

I should add, kids needn't be read to as small children so they learn to love books. The problem is trying to gcse texts to 16 year olds who have a reading age of 11 or expecting a 15 year old to sit in front of his mates and read a book aimed at 11 year olds.

We are not talking about jack reacher on TV are we.... ill get my coat....

I agree, being able to lose yourself in a book, without being spoon fed, using your imagination to picture the characters and the time of interactions is so important. They’re essential skills but also bring such pleasure to reading.

My 13 and 14 year old are free to read any book I have in the house. They include rom com type holiday reading, thrillers, murder mystery types and a huge number of factual and text books. My DDs school contacted me because she took in a book they deemed inappropriate - it was a detective novel. We had an interesting discussion about her being encouraged to read for pleasure, whatever she chose, and being able to discuss content with her.

They have access to all sorts of stuff online, I’m not going to worry about her reading a novel. If kids got the message that reading doesn’t need to be “worthy” to have value I suspect more kids would read.

All reading builds vocabulary and comprehension - the more kids read anything, they think more widely, their vocabulary and ability to read context improves. My DS teacher said he could tell he comes from a “reading” home because of his vocabulary, is verbal reasoning and his articulate use of language.

I think there are two different questions here.

Should schools use a broader range of literature to help children get into reading? Absolutely. I was always a reader as a child but for the most part I hated the books my school forced us to read. Carrie’s War?? I was so bored. I started school in the year 2000, so there were definitely more modern books they could have chosen. I can’t even remember the titles of the others they were so forgettable to me.

Should they specifically teach Jack Reacher? I don’t think so. I don’t think they would make great study material. But perhaps I’m wrong.

*noting that I’m talking about primary school for Carrie’s War, obviously. At secondary school we did Shakespeare which I did enjoy, and then Joyce which I did not.

Yep. HP books got DS reading fiction. Beforehand he just wasn't interested.

Yes, we know that reading for pleasure is associated with all sorts of improved outcomes, not least GCSE results.

In which case, perhaps we need to disassociate it from the English curriculum. If teachers are saying 'we can't teach thrillers, we need better written books which use proper literary devices to teach those things' then ok.

But maybe, like PE is compulsory because kids need exercise, they should have reading lessons which do not take time away from the English curriculum where the class could read more fun books that they don't have to analyse. I know plenty of schools already have reading lessons lower down the school but they get ditched come GCSE.

The lack of reading for pleasure is becoming a national crisis which needs to be addressed nationally, not merely by individual schools.

Of Mice and Men hasn't been taught for ages in most schools, thanks to Gove. It was by far and away the most engaging and moving text taught in schools. I can't see Jack Reacher moving boys to tears and prompting conversations about poverty, misogyny, race , and male tenderness and violence. Plus, Steinbeck is a multiple award winning author. Child, not so much.

Does your DS do IGCSE?

Hmm, having looked at a plot summary, it may be modern and certainly worthy, but not particularly ticking the 'engaging and exciting' box.

I think what this thread shows is that it is important that schools give children the opportunity be exposed to a wide variety of texts during their education because when it comes to reading there isn’t a one size fits all and we need to help children find what works for them!

DS school have a library session for each class from years 7-9 each week which is simply time in the library to enjoy the books and read. They have staff with them who can help to suggest what someone may enjoy but beyond that it’s just reading.

Perhaps - but I know which I’d prefer to read (and it isn’t Steinbeck!)

Different strokes for different folks.