Plenty of children who loved books at nine barely touch one at 13. If this is happening in your home, you are not imagining it, and it is rarely your child being lazy.
Ajay Jain has watched it from behind the counter. He is the founder of Kunzum, an independent bookstore in New Delhi, and he joined us on The Reading Lens. In his experience, nearly all children read until about 11 or 12. Then, around Class 8, things change quickly.
What actually changes around Class 8?
Ajay points to several things arriving together: heavier academic pressure, more gadgets, more pocket money, and more freedom to go out. Nobody decides to give up reading. It simply gets crowded out by all the new distractions.
One thing he does not blame is the price of books. When we asked whether cost is the main barrier, he said pricing comes second. The first thing is culture: is reading simply a part of life at home? His generation could not buy many new books, yet they found them. They borrowed, they exchanged, they went to libraries, and there were shops in the market that rented out books and comics. If somebody wants to read, they find the books.
Do parents really make the difference?
Ajay's first answer to parents was to look inwards. Before giving children advice, or an order, parents need to start reading books themselves, because only then will children want to. You can make a child read, but if they see their parents on devices, that is what they will copy. Every adult should be reading anyway, he said, for their own wellbeing and for the way they see the world.
What could schools do?
One idea Ajay offered: ask children to write a short review or a 100-word summary of a book they have read, by hand, with paper and pen rather than on a device. It shows whether the book was actually read, and it keeps the habit of writing about books alive.
What to try this week
Let your child see you reading a book for 15 minutes tonight.
Try Ajay's reading picnic. Pack books and food, park the car somewhere, and leave the phones in it.
Borrow, swap and rent. A child does not need a new book to have a next book.
Ask your child to tell you about the last book they finished, in their own words.
