How to get my nine-year-old to read more?

[Franny1]

Hello, just to be clear this is not a thread about a kid who HATES reading! When I've looked up similar questions before the answers always seem to divide into kids who love reading and read constantly, and kids who hate reading and never read! This is not us. Surely some kids are in the middle!

I have a nine year old who LOVES being read to (quite grown-up stuff, so we did all the Harry Potters but have now just done The Hobbit which he adored), and very occasionally gets into independently reading a fictional series that he loves (eg Daisy and the trouble with, The Treehouse books, Mr Gum, recently a kids' version of the Iliad (!)) - but the rest of the time will happily go without reading books by himself (unless he has to for school etc) for weeks/months. He loves comics/Dog Man etc and easier non fiction picture books, but seems to find pages of text daunting. Actually he has told me that, and I don't quite understand if he's just being a bit lazy about more text heavy books, or if he genuinely finds them significantly harder and whether there's something I can do to help with that. Or whether that will just come in time (coming on mumsnet sometimes it feels like if kids aren't massive bookworms by age 9 they'll never be!).

His spelling and comprehension seem v good/up to scratch (year 4) – but he is easily distracted (and has some other traits that have always made me wonder if he is neurodiverse in some way) to the point that we we did have him privately assessed for inattentive adhd at one point but were told he didn't fully match the criteria, particularly at school. Conscious that things like stealth dyslexia exist and am wondered if really this is a boy who loves stories but somehow can't quite get to the next level of reading by himself because he find dense text too challenging? Or maybe he just doesn't like reading as much as me (I LOVE reading) and I'm overthinking it!

I know some kids aren't readers, but I do find it weird when he seems to adore stories and being read to, and he is bright and can read well, and has always lived in a house with tons of books and reading.

Any thoughts? Would particularly love to hear from people whose kids either became bookworms later on, or whether people think there might be stealth neurodiversity issue here... Thanks!

I agree with others that most of my DC’s reading happens in bed after we’ve said goodnight to them. They read their school book to one of us, we read to them and then we say goodnight but they can read basically for as long as they like or listen to yoto. I think it helps to go to the library lots and you pick books you think they might like as well as them picking some too.
Finally a winter treat we do as a family (two options depending on how flush you’re feeling)- go to library and all pick a book, adults too, take hot choc with you and sit and read them together there and then. Option two is go to Waterstones or local book shop, all buy a new a book each and then go straight to a cafe and again, read them independently but “together” with some nice cake!

At that age I read Asterix the Gaul books and Tintin.

A book of short stories might work too. Each chapter of the Just William books is really a short story that can be read independently of each other. Professor Branestawm is the same.

My daughter is 9 and sounds just like your son. I would say her reading is slightly below average though because she only started learning how to read in English last year in year 3. She currently likes the horrid Henry early readers but I’m wanting her to move on to something more challenging without forcing it.she also doesn’t like to be faced with lots of text as it seems daunting. I’m now giving her 15 minutes at bedtime where she can choose to either go to sleep or read with calming music on the Alexa. She always chooses to read so I’m hopeful this will promote her to eventually start trying more challenging books. She also loves me to read Harry Potter etc to her.

I like pp suggestion of the kindle

I didn’t give him the books.

Not to derail but do most people read actual books still when they're reading in front of the kids? It does seem that most of us read on kindles or phones nowadays. Me and my husband have talked about making an effort to pick up books but we get books to our phones so it's the first go to. I do think it makes a difference and it is better to read actual books but how much longer will that be realistic I wonder?

I dont understand reading things like all the harry potters already. Just because they can read or can listen, it doesnt mean they can understand or fully appreciate it all.

The same way that there are lots of U's and PG movies to watch, there are lots of age appropriate books and you've skipped way ahead. You dont need to skip on to 12's or 15's.

Use Toppsta for book ideas. I dont think he will enjoy content written for teenagers and young adults, when he is you know, 9.

I feel like this sort of thing is a bit show off for the parents, "oh yeah my child is reading insert teen/ya novel". Theres kids at school who've told my similar age kid that harry potter is for babies, as there mum has steamrolled them through books and they now bring things like hunger games into a class of 8 and 9 year olds and seem to relish telling other kids that its about "kids who kill each other", becasue that's all they ahve to say about it, which my own child has found very strange. And I also don't see why schools allow it.

Rein it in a bit and rather than spending your time sourcing material meant for teenagers or YA, put the same effort into finding books meant for 9 year olds.

Its not a competition to race ahead to thick books with no pictures.

You've went too far too soon in my opinion and I have good readers and believe its becasue I've kept it age appropriate. But that's just my opinion.

Its not impressive to me your child has been exposed to content for teenagers or young adults, its the opposite of impressive.

As I say try Toppsta, he can make his own account, you can do it together, check out their reading lists by age, its a great resource. But like I say that's all just my opinion. Best wishes.

I read actual books.

My DH reads a kindle.

Now adult DS used to read his kindle but has switched back to books and finds them so satisfying-as do I.
I think there is hope for books for the future.

This. A Kindle or Kindle app on a tablet could well be the answer: you can adjust the text size and font until it's easier to read and sometimes just a non-serif font (like this one) is the answer. My sons were dyslexic, so we did the classics like Dickens (ok, often abridged!) on the equivalent of Audible. One son now does a lot of driving for work, and he downloads masses of books to while away his journeys. He may not be well-read, but he's well-listened!

My children are all home educated so it's a bit different but they all learnt to read by themselves about 7, one went from sounding out at 7 to full chapter books in about 6 weeks, one read every comic book going & 13 storey treehouse type stuff but the chapter book switch didn't flip until 11, next very similar but chapter books at 9.

My now teens read huge numbers of giant books - I'm pretty sure no one could look at what they read now & tell which was reading chapter books at 7 & which was 11.

My long winded way of saying does it really matter - reading is reading & all reading is good.

I would let him loose in the library to fill his card with anything that he fancies & offer to read the first couple of chapters aloud to him so he can get a good idea of the book without the "hard work" of reading. He can then take over from you/stop/that becomes your new read aloud.

i would also look for more/older comic book series eg Corpse Talk, Zita the Space, Amulet, mine all rate the wings of fire comic over the books (never normally), 5 worlds, Cleopatra in Space

I do - I love real books & use the library constantly

Have a look at books published by Barrington Stoke- They're fantastic for children with dyslexia.

Can you maybe research and try some if the resources aimed at dyslexia and just see if they help? Things like the different print formats and using a ruler to track the lines.
Honestly, I read loads as a child. Because I was really bored! Tv wasn't available like it is now, way less or no internet and not many friends. So lack of other options is probably key, but do you really want to go that way? 😆

Aways real books here.

Op Dts are both dyslexic, they hated (still hate) reading. It's a non negotiable they read for 30 minutes every week night. They're y9 now and finally got diagnosed in y7. It was flagged as an issue in school in y4, and they both 'passed' the nessy screen. Then Covid happened, then it was impossible to get an appointment, the school was useless and private appointments were impossible to get.

Turns out they are both quite 'severely' dyslexic not sure what the proper term is. One uses a laptop in school, the other one also has visual stress. Coloured overlay and coloured paper has made such a difference.

I can't remember the exact numbers now but her reading speed and comprehension went up 75% as soon as she used an overlay in the assessment.

Are you talking to OP? Because she said that her DS likes the Harry Potter books being read to him not that he’s reading them himself. Harry Potter is fine to be read to a 9 year old

I'm too old to have had dyslexia and was a voracious reader but my spelling was unbelievable.
My mother needed to get me to read a bigger range of books so she sat down and started reading "My Family and Other Animals".
It is a side splittingly funny book and it wasn't long before I was reading it.
The other thing she did was read me into books, which I appreciated.

I'm reading How To Train Your Dragon to my kids and because it's a simpler book they often just finish chapters themselves after I've put them to bed.

Sorry if someone has already read this but I bet your son (same age as mine!) would love Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid - easy to read and fun illustrations!

Why does it make any difference? I find hardback books weigh a bit heavy these days, and my eyes find normal 12pt text hard going. Read copiously on a Kindle app though.

Same with my two. My 16 year old has never read a book for leisure. My 9 year old is the same. It's a shame because I devour books. I always encourage them but I'm not going to force them. I do feel like they are missing out on one of life's great pleasures though 🙁

I didn't suggest it did - I just prefer to read paper books.

If you meant the comment I quoted then it's about modelling for children- if they see parents reading on a phone it looks no different to them than a parent doom scrolling/checking emails etc

HTH

We used audio books to get everyone in contact with the written word. I used to use story CDs and tapes as an English teacher, and they all loved that: we listened to some difficult books, too.

We were talking about adults modelling by reading their own books, not aloud.

The difficulty of the read aloud wasn't in question was it?