The Superpower that Might Matter Most Richard Glover SMH 12th July

Wow, two weekends in a row the Sydney Morning Herald has something to say about Australia's falling literacy rates and the drop in numbers of people reading to their children. As a grandparent, Richard has worked out how to entertain children, read to them and make it a memorable experience so they want the experience repeated. Richard Glover in the Sydney Morning Herald today (12th July 2025 Subscriber link)

A few weeks ago I wrote about Aidan Chamber's contribution to children's literature and reading teaching and his reading cycle has an important component called the 'enabling adult'. Yes, an adult has to convince children that this is fun and worthwhile. Reading aloud to children is the subtle way to do it, much better than a flashcard drill or a program on a computer. 

Richard's grandchildren are indeed lucky to have someone who wants to read to them, enjoys reading to them, knows what to read to them and better even still, does voices for the characters. Not everyone is good at voices, but everyone can 'cuddle up and share a book' ie. read and talk about it, what you like, don't like, which character would you most like to be etc.  Richard asks 'Who doesn't like reading books to kids?' It would appear that many adults either haven't had this pleasure or are choosing to forgo it.

Two days ago I attended a local Lifeline Book Fair with two other teacher librarians... heaven for us and so many others who were there early in the morning. There were people with bags full of books so books are not 'dead'. I watched the people in the children's section. There was a young mother collecting every Peppa Pig and Maisy title she could find. I am so pleased she is obviously reading to someone, but I did want to ask her some questions. Why collect Maisy, but leave other Lucy Cousins' books in the box? Was it because she had seen these on television? I wanted to offer suggestions that would  expand her reading choices. There were several Jill Murphy and Martin Waddell books in the box that she skipped over, and which would have been great choices. Who doesn't love Five Minutes' Peace and Peace at Last  by Jill Murphy or Can't You Sleep Little Bear? and Owl Babies  by Martin Waddell?

There were families where the mother and kids were looking for a particular author or series of books and the Book Fair is very good for this. They group the books to make it much easier for all and it keeps it tidier. If one book in a series is lost from the school library, I look for a replacement at the Book Fair.

What else do I buy? Mainly I buy books for my friends and sisters who are grandmothers who like to read with their grandchildren. They have a box of books at their homes for when the children visit and they say I always give them great books that hold the children's attention. That is because I have book knowledge, well honed over years of study, teaching and being a teacher librarian. I believe reading to children is of paramount importance so I see spending money at a book fair as being one way to ensure children get to have books in their hands and an enabling adult to share them.

Long ago, I taught  trainee primary school teachers at university and teachers in schools about literacy and how to teach reading and writing. I always started a lecture or a session by reading a children's book to them. It was a way of making sure they knew about that chosen book. It worries me that undergraduate teachers have so little time in their course to read books for themselves that a knowledgable mentor has recommended. 

Reading with children is precious time, time that you will not get back! Someone gave me a fridge magnet when my children were small that in essence said something to the effect that your children will only be children for a short time, but the dust and housework will always be there, so make the most of your time with them and worry less about what you didn't get to do. Yes, you may be asked to read the same book over and over because it is a favourite, but you have to clean over and over too and it is not a favourite. Perhaps teachers need to think like this too, before they give up their class serial or picture- book-a-day routine, because if students are not being read to at home than we need to look for ways to make sure they are read to, catch the 'reading bug' and go on to be readers who not only can read, but choose to read and then pass that superpower onto their children and grandchildren as Richard Glover is doing.

As time-poor adults we have to make choices, we have to prioritise what we think is important and we have to advertise how pleasurable reading aloud is by doing it well and often. Visit the library. The school I teach at lends books to parents and grandparents,  but if your school doesn't visit the local council library. They will steer you in the right direction. There are so many parent reference books to help with this also. They have recommended reading lists!

• Raising Readers by Megan Daley 

• Reading Magic  by Mem Fox

• 7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading  by Louise Park

The Final Chapter Good Weekend July 5th 2025

The Final Chapter is an article by journalist Greg Callaghan which is published in the Sydney Morning herald's magazine Good Weekend today. It doesn't say anything that passionate literacy and English teachers didn't know, but once again it highlights some of the trends in schools today. We need to do something about Reading for Pleasure!

Schools have made the change towards teaching more systematic phonics in the early years of school, but this doesn't make children readers. It means they can read, but will they choose to read when there are so many other things vying for their time? What is the role of parents in the reading continuum? What is the role of libraries, especially school libraries and teacher librarians? This article talks about this. Children need to hear good examples of oral reading. They need to be exposed to a wide variety of reading resources and yes, this can include eBooks and reading on devices, but not to the exclusion of books.

If I plan a library lesson and it doesn't include me reading something to the students they say, 'but you didn't read to us today, we can't go yet'. More than ever students are enamoured of being read to. It is almost a novelty for them. A kindergarten mum once said to me, 'I wasn't aware that I am meant to read to my child!' We still have so much parent education to impart. So why are school getting rid of libraries and teacher librarians? Why are there school principals who think a school library needs none to very little funding for books? Why does the new NSW English curriculum advocate reading to students and giving students time to read for themselves, but then fills up the time allocated to English with so much teacher instruction? Teachers constantly say 'oh there isn't time to read', we have so much to get through in the published units of work'. 

This also means teachers are not reading much for themselves, unless it is prescribed. If it is prescribed, it then is published elsewhere such as on Spotify, Story Box Library, websites, etc, so teachers do not have to read it. They listen and watch with their students. I am not blaming teachers for doing this, I am just saying if we want teachers to be engaged in their own learning they too need time to explore what is on offer and build their own field knowledge of books. If not, then that is the teacher librarian's role and s/he needs to be able to read to students without other staff members thinking that that is not the best use of their time. 

In a staff meeting held in the library and run by me, I asked teachers to list 6 Australian authors or illustrators of children's books, thinking that would be easy. Yes they know Aaron Blabey, Anh Do, Alison Lester and Mem Fox then it became harder. 6 non-Australian was easier. They know Dav Pilkey, Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson,... 6 children's poets? Some hadn't even heard of Michael Rosen, so we have to spend more time on building the field and reading it. I tried to run a book club for teachers on the staff and I got six staff to come once a fortnight and we did picture books and short novels, but not one classroom teacher came, citing they just do not have time. 

Schools (and families) really do need to look at their priorities. The parents who frequent our school library generally have children who revel in reading. They are the students that do well at the end of school. I met a mother of a past student in the supermarket this week and she was so excited to tell me that he was doing an English degree and had rediscovered the joys of reading. We do not all have to have or do an English degree to love reading, but it does start at home and in the early years of school. We need to 'catch' children and make them 'readers for life'. Schools need to make it easy for parents to read to their children. Schools need to make time for reading.

The UK has falling literacy rates as well, but it has realised phonics is not enough to make readers. They are implementing Reading for Pleasure programs in schools. Some schools in Australia have had the benefit of input by advocates such as Margaret Merga and they too now stop everyday to read at school. See Queenwood's Just Read program.

Thank you Greg for this article. Hopefully parents and teachers will read it and lobby their schools to do more about Reading for Pleasure so that they too realise what you wrote in your conclusion

'Multiple studies have shown that those who read for pleasure for 30 minutes or more a day enjoy higher self-esteem, a substantially lower risk of depression, are less lonely, and 58 percent more likely to empathise with others.'