I was delighted to champion World Book Day this week in Parliament, celebrating the importance of reading for pleasure on World Book Day. Everyyear, World Book Day creates bespoke £1 books for children and young adults across the UK and Ireland, to promote the power of imagination and the importance of reading.
Through World BookDay, every child in the Thirsk and Malton constituency is given a £1 book token, which they can take to a bookshop or supermarket to get their free World Book Day book. I joined a Parliamentary drop-in this week to champion reading for pleasure in Thirsk and Malton.
The campaign calls on teachers, carers and parents to ensure that reading for pleasure is encouraged as much as reading attainment. While reading was the only core subject which saw attainment levels improve in 20224, the number of children who say they enjoy it is in serious decline. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success–more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. However, reading for pleasure is at its lowest levels in 18 years and many children have limited access to books. 500,000 (one in 15) children in England aged 8–18 say they don’t own a single book, which rises to one in 10 for those eligible for Free School Meals. One in five pupils receiving Free School Meals said that the book they ‘bought’ with their World Book Day book token was the first book of their own.
Thirsk and Malton MP said “It is a pleasure to support World Book Day.It is so important that every child and young adult in Thirsk and Malton has the opportunity to have a book of their own that they have chosen for themselves–and I am delighted to celebrate my own love of reading through the World Book Day campaign.
