Stories of children who became keen readers after age eight

[Meforthree]

Tell me your stories of kids who really got into reading after age 8! I feel like when I look around I can only see stories of kids who are immediate total bookworms as soon as they can read, or else never really get into it. And I’m hoping that’s not true!

My kid is just fine with reading. Loves being read to, will occasionally get into reading a book by herself but not that often… I’m still waiting for the day she gets her nose deep into a series and was hoping it might but this summer but no luck so far. Would love to hear all your hopeful happy read stories!

Me!! I was a late reader and my mum persevered with me - bought me books for Christmas and birthdays, would read to me all the time and one day, I picked up a book independently and have never stopped reading. I’m not 100% sure but I think it was Enid Blyton that got me started specifically the St Cleres and Malory Towers books. I’m 54 now and an avid reader.

@Meforthree yes he just decided one day that he wanted to read the next one himself, then he read them all again. This was a boy who wouldn't even read his school book without a lot of reminding, threats, and bribes, so I was thrilled! Older dd liked books as a child and was reading at 3 (at her instigation) but as a teen stopped reading completely and hasn't picked up a book since. I love reading myself, i read to all of my dc at bedtime, we had lots of books in the house, we visited the library regularly, you could say we did everything 'right', and out of 4 dc, two read all the time, the other two don't read at all.

DD was a very capable but reluctant reader around 8/9. The problem was that there was very little out there that appealed to her. Then she picked up one of her brother’s Percy Jackson books and had been a huge, enthusiastic reader ever since. She’s nearly 15. Her favourite day out is one to a big bookshop!

Both mine are keen readers (15 and 11). It’s something we worked at, because it mattered a lot to us, as DH and I are both readers. With the eldest, she struggled to learn to read and to spell, but loved audiobooks from a young age and around age 8 fell in love with the Warrior Cats series (that was a trying time for all of us 😬). She’s been keen ever since - maxed out the reading age test when she started at secondary school, and is predicted high grades in English (despite not thinking she was good at it in primary school because she struggled with spelling and mirror writing etc).

I’ve had to be open-minded about what the reading looks like - ebooks, audiobooks, fan fiction, as well as a love of print books too.

If you’re not using it already, UK libraries all have ebooks and audiobooks (usually via Libby or Borrowbox) so they can try out lots of books and formats. And Spotify etc has audiobook hours. Bookshop.org has special deals on ebooks (not so much on kids titles).

I teach 8-yr-olds and lots of them become keen readers around that age, as they are becoming more independent readers with increased stamina for longer books and thus can access far more interesting stories.

It’s often about having lots to choose from (school/public libraries, bookshops) and they are often influenced by peers so find out what their friends are reading. Don’t restrict them - if they pick out a book you don’t love, it could be a pathway in. I’ve had to bite my tongue around DogMan and Walliams - then gently guide to other graphic novels, crazy characters or whatever has attracted them to the genre.

Op whilst she is still so young do keep reading to her and also get Audio books.

Look at the ottoline series / mr gum (hilarous ) but the main books that got two non readers hooked was warrior cats. The warrior cat series is immense.

huge thanks to everyone who replied on here, so reassuring that we haven’t entirely missed the boat! Hurray!

i am a massive reader and always have been and it was incredibly important to me that my kids were readers. However, they didn’t feel the same way and I had to resort to comics and audio books for many years. They all started reading properly in 6th form and love reading nos

Well kids cant take themselves to the library, look online for recommemdations or take themselves to book shop.

So you gave to provide constant stream of books, imo kids who are bookworms are down to the effort parents put in.

I know parents who've tried and given the 5th book of a series and then when kid doesnt get into bemoan theyre just not readers. Things like that dont help, books should be read in order to get kids hooked into the characters and story as the author intended.

My tips are look at toppsta for ideas, kids can also have an account to review their books and enter book giveaways.
https://toppsta.com/

Use toppsta to find books by age or school year and use your local library website (if you have one) to reserve the books. Maybe go for the age or school year below to get them started and not too tricky. Make sure with popular series that you get the books in order, book 1, then 2, then 3 etc. If no library, cheap used books can be purchased via ebay or amazon but selecting the used option, normally for £2-3 per book.

Check if any of their favourite netflix shows are book adaptions as netflix went through a phase for a few years of adapting kids books so we tried many books that way.

And make reading non-negotiable, 20 or 30 minutes per day, with an alexa timer set, every day. The same mentality as brushing teeth is non-negotiable, reading is also non-negotiable.

So on appearance my dcs might seem like bookworms, but its been years of effort on my part doing all of the above.

Ive also done things like completed novels in exhange for say robox or vbucks for use in gaming so incentives can be used.

They want a new toy or gaming currency, I'll do that in return for 1 completed chapter book so they might choose to read for extra time to get through the book.

For that age my initial thought is graphic novels and things like dog man and bunny vs monkey but again research to ensure you get book 1's rather than dropping them in the middle of a series. But toppsta will see you right with ideas.

It takes lots of effort! Unfortunately theres no easy answer! x

My oldest DS has always loved reading but my youngest was never interested. I took him to the library and few times and we picked out a wide range of books to try. It took a while but he loved Diary of a Wimpy kid and now will read other similar books. He's still not as keen as his brother but will read before bed every night.

He's 9 and would still prefer to be read to so I try to do it a couple of times a week.

My son was like this - he loved being read to but reading anything to himself was just a bit too much like hard work. I kept persevering - often I’d read to him but make sure I left it on a cliffhanger so he would want to read on, and eventually his reading capability caught up with his reading interest level.

He was a voracious reader from about year 5 right through to his mid teens when phones, sport, gaming etc took over, but at 20 he’s gradually dipping back in again, and realising that reading is satisfying in a way that scrolling isn’t.

Fantasy books. And audio books. Skandar, impossible creatures, Roar. Mostly it was audio books though! She's dyslexic, still can't read properly but has a good go at it and the passion is there. Youngest not interested. Hopefully will come. We both read constantly so it's the norm in our house.

Yay so glad for you they go there in the end! I am tired of reading things that say oh why do you care or it’s not important! It IS important! I don’t really care at all what they read, but reading in some form or another absolutely is important!

I’ve always loved reading, but my brother didn’t get into it until he was about 25. And now reads all the time! So there is hope.

I assume you have tried Harry Potter? There is a reason they are the world’s most popular children’s books. I read them to my DD aged 8 and she loved them so much that she then read them all again by herself (repeatedly!) and it led her into reading more generally.

I think it’s about finding the right book series. DD loved books was a baby, young child but around 8-12 wasn’t particularly keen then we found a series she loved and it totally changed. Now she’s 18 and just turned one wall of her room into a library. I have to drag her out of a book to talk to her! It can happen but it’s down to the right series at the right time getting them hooked.

Op try warrior cats ! It's even been mentioned by someone else but it's got loads of shy readers going

Do understand however aside from the mental stuff that can only happen when reading; you can talk about stories //structure /character and all the rest with the TV ! I had to do this when dd couldn't read I just used the TV and film...what will happen next ,how do we describe that character and so on .

you can talk about stories //structure /character and all the rest with the TV ! I had to do this when dd couldn't read I just used the TV and film...what will happen next ,how do we describe that character and so on .

We found Overly Sarcastic Productions at about right age - they do history which my DC loved - but also myths and story summarises then trope talks breaking down common story structures and characterisations and going through examples - more fun that I've made it sound. I think it not being just us doing it helped there as well.