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Our Approach and the Evidence Behind It

Our Approach and the Evidence Behind It

Our Approach and the Evidence Behind It

Our strategy

Our strategy has been developed following conversations with a range of World Book Day’s stakeholders; publishers, bookshops, schools, other literacy and reading charities and libraries.

Six Elements - One Reading Superpower

World Book Day defines Reading for Pleasure as:

Feeling sense of satisfaction or pleasure by engaging with chosen reading material in their free time.

We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.

The evidence base shows there are 6 building elements which support a child to read for pleasure

Being read to regularly

Having books at home and at school

Having a choice in what to read

Finding time to read

Having trusted help to find a book

Making reading FUN!

These 6 elements shape and guide everything World Book Day does.

Why Reading For Pleasure? - The Evidence

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. Key outcomes are listed below.

• Improvement in vocabulary in comparison to non-readers (Millennium Cohort Study)
• Correlation between regularity of reading for pleasure and ability in reading each reinforcing the other as students get older (Cremin 2019, Torppa 2020)
• Better performance in subjects other than English (Millennium Cohort Study)
• Reading for pleasure is one of the most important predictors of test scores at age 16, regardless of background (OECD)
• There is a strong correlation between regular reading for Pleasure and Mental Wellbeing which is separate from other predictors (NLT 2018)
• Reading improves a child’s empathy skills (Oatly 2016)
• Interventions developing Reading for Pleasure attitudes (offering book choice and time to read rather than instruction) have a greater influence on reading ability than reading lessons for older children/adults (Greenberg 2014)

The Department for Education’s recent Reading Framework – Teaching the Foundations of Literacy published in also includes a summary of the evidence on Reading for Pleasure and highlights how it might be put in practice in the curriculum.

Uncovering children's attitudes to reading for pleasure

We have worked with Beano Brain  to explore children’s attitudes to reading for pleasure. Beano Brain have conducted two research studies on our behalf. Both included two stages of national qualitative and quantitative research.

The first stage used deep dive interviews with 8 of Beano Brain’s Trendspotters to explore influences on their reading lives and their attitudes to reading. In stage two we tested the key themes at scale (1000+ respondents).

The first study (2024) looked at the reading attitudes and behaviours of children. The second looked at how children and parents engage with reading (2025).

Inspiring And Encouraging Reading For Pleasure: The Mercers’ Company 2020-2023 Literacy Special Initiative

World Book Day was funded by the Mercers’ Company to take part in its 2020-2023 Literacy Special Initiative, which focused on the promotion of reading and writing for pleasure.

The Open University, as learning partner, was commissioned to establish: “The approaches that seem to be effective in inspiring and encouraging children and young people to read and/or write for pleasure.”

The OU undertook a review of existing research on reading and writing for pleasure, and data from the participating charities including World Book Day to create Reading and Writing for Pleasure: Framework for Practice, for practitioners

World Book Day Six Principles Aligned With Recent Synthesis Of Research Literature

The World Book Day six approaches to support reading for pleasure align with a recent synthesis of research literature which identified six principles to support reading enjoyment and engagement: access, choice, time, connection, social and success (Love to Read, 2022).

Love to Read was funded by Nuffield Foundation and drew upon a huge range of knowledge, experience and expertise from researchers, teachers, school leaders, other professionals and children from across the UK. The project was led by Dr Sarah McGeown, University of Edinburgh, and was carried out in collaboration with Scottish Book Trust, Education Scotland and National Literacy Trust.

Our Resources And Activity Bank

We have some fantastic resources to support reading engagement in children.

Explore ideas from our partners and fellow teachers and practitioners that support our 6 elements of Reading for Pleasure.

Thank You To Our Partners

World Book Day has developed this framework in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and The Open University. We have drawn on their extensive research
evidence and they have quality assured this framework. We hope this framework will result in longer term and deeper engagement in the reading for pleasure pedagogies and practices provided by our partners.

We have been able to complete this work with support from The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, a charity associated with the Mercers’ Company.