So your kid doesn't read and that worries you? The solution is simple

OPINION: Readers are created in the home, writes best-selling children's author Stacy Gregg.

This week I've been at the Auckland Writers Festival surrounded by a sea of pashminas and pinot gris. The festival is awesome. It's a hugely popular event. A beloved event. It'll never last.

Hey, just being honest. How can we possibly continue to have a writers festival when we are soon to be lacking the most important component of all – readers.

Nothing tells the truth like a graph. I received a brutal piece of data last week from HarperCollins UK. The publishing house have commited to a long-running survey into "reading for pleasure" habits of kids and by any metrics for all ages the numbers are dire and getting worse.

In the category that I write for – middle-graders aged 8-10 – the number of kids who cite themselves as reading for pleasure (four days or more a week) has dropped from 56% in 2012 to 31% in 2024. Readers in the 'young adult' category are worse still. Only 12% of 14-17-year-olds say they would willingly pick up a book. Drill down into the genders and the stats for boys are even more desperate, with only 9% saying they'd read a book for fun.

Although the survey is British, there's anecdotal evidence of a similar drop here.

Globally we are growing a generation of kids who are not habituated into reading. What is most concerning is we seem to be treating this trend with apathetic inevitability. The common chorus is a defeatist rant about the failures of the school system, and the dominance of social media with kids irreperably glued to their devices.

But what if we changed the narrative? What if we dared to fight back?

You want your child to read? Agitate for it, support it, make it a priority, because this is too important and it is in your hands.

Here is what we know: Between the ages of 0-5, reading habits will thrive or die. And it's not your kids picking up those first board books. It is you. In the years to come, it is still you who will drive the child's love of books. This was what the survey had to say about it: "Some parents stop reading aloud once a child can read for themselves, assuming they will choose to continue reading. Some parents even feel rueful that they do not do it anymore. They think of reading aloud as something nostalgic: we did that then, not now, because they are no longer young. Yet other parents believe if they read to their child it will make them lazy and less likely to read independently. None of these beliefs are true. What is true is that children need a lot of help to get a reading habit – and regularly and frequently reading aloud is the best help there is."

Moreover, reading support should not stop at school age. The school curriculum does not plug the gap because "there is little free choice and a lot of obligation" in the books that are read, according to the survey.

Does the same apply to New Zealand schools? Certainly picking up a book for pleasure is not a part of the current government's education policy. Recently in The Spinoff, David Taylor, head of English at Northcote School wrote about how he flat-out refused to teach the government's 2025 updated English curriculum, partly because reading for pleasure had been "seriously demoted" for years 9-13, and the programme allowed for zero reading for pleasure for students in years 7-8.

So far, so bad. But here is where the news gets better. I don't really think kids have stopped reading. On Tuesday this week I stood onstage and spoke to 2000 intermediate schoolers at the Aotea Centre and they were all buzzing like mad about books. All of us in the getting-kids-to-read business – authors, publishers, book-sellers – know that we're fighting short attention spans and social media saturation and trust me when I say we are bringing a gun to the knife fight. Our books have changed. We've adapted and raised our game. Onstage straight after me at the Aotea, author of the Nevermoor series and international phenom Jessica Townsend spoke to the kids about her ADHD making her gifted at writing for the short attention span, but to be honest any writer worth their salt these days knows how to turn out books for kids who have bouncing brains and publishers are finding ways to draw in and engage even the most reluctant readers.

We are doing everything we can to keep kids reading for pleasure and we have formidable allies. Librarians lead the charge, but so too do book retailers, and both tautoko each other in this fight. Libraries are great but can I point out the obvious and say that, realistically, if an author has visited your kid's school and sparked a fire in them to read a particular book, then there's no way that the single copy the school library possesses can do the rounds and stoke the flames for every child. After my session at the Aotea centre I watched as schools of kids left clutching their signed copies of Nine Girls as if they were taonga motuhake. So, provided you have the means, and there's the opportunity then do it. Strike while the iron is hot. Complete the circle for the child. Make it special and precious to own a beautiful, intense, meaningful private world that can fit inside a schoolbag.

Because if you really want things to change, if you want your kids to get off the screens, then do the unthinkable: Buy them a book and read it with them.

Pukapuka Adventures is a free family event for kids at the Auckland Writers Festival today and tomorrow (May 17 and 18).