Introduction

No child is born a reluctant reader. Ten year old Zarenu, who wrote the statement above, had somehow become reluctant to read over his five years of schooling. Between 1992 and 1994, Zarenu and his friends helped me with a research project into why children did not like to read. Comments by others included:

Just before these remarks were made, I had started in my new post as Director of INSET for the Reading and Language Information Centre (RALIC) at the University of Reading. As part of that role I was expected to do research into literacy learning. I knew what I wanted to research; it was a phenomenon I had seen in every class I taught – reluctance to read. I was not interested in the packages of materials promoted as ‘ideal for reluctant readers’, nor did I subscribe wholeheartedly to the then current trend of blaming television and new technology for youngsters’ lack of interest in books. Some pupils seemed to have lost interest in books of all kinds. I wanted to ask them why but there was never an opportunity to do that. As a researcher I could arrange to talk in confidence to as many youngsters as were willing to do so. Zarenu and his classmates were among many other children and teenagers who contributed to a two-year project which I hoped would help me to tackle this particular professional issue.

Teachers and librarians are always concerned about youngsters who have difficulty learning to read. In some ways, even more concerning are those students who, despite the ability to do so, are unwilling to read. These are the reluctant readers, who find no pleasure in books and thus lack any incentive to read. The concerns of ‘literacy professionals’ reflect those of society in general, as life can be very uncomfortable for anyone who cannot read.