Reading in Grade School: Then Vs. Now

    I'd like to begin this blog post by acknowledging that I am very biased about this topic and only have my experiences to base my opinion on. That being said, I do believe there are some trends between the reading that I remember in grade school, and the reading that my nieces and nephew are experiencing today. 
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Junie B Jones, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Goosebumps, Captain Underpants, Charolette's Web, and Choose Your Own Adventure books are only a few of the countless books I remember running through my grade school library to check out before someone else ripped them off the shelf first. Reading was an integral part of my grade school. Every class had programs for summer reading, reading for scheduled times in class, and of course, reading for hours and hours at home in hopes of gaining enough minutes on your card to earn your free personal pizza coupon at our local pizza hut. Not to mention reading for comprehension so you can ace that AR test. I remember not only me being in love with reading, but many of my classmates as well. 
    Today is a different story. From my nieces and nephew, I've heard a lot about the grade schools near my town. The first difference I noticed was the books they read are very different than the ones I remember. Of course, there are still the classic books that I remember floating around the library shelves. One popular series, according to my nieces and nephew, is a series titled Amulet. The difference between this series and the series from my memory, is that these books are laid out like comic books, without the long blocks of text. My brother has been struggling with these types of books being so popular as he tries to help my nephew read more frequently and at a higher level because they can be read so quickly, with the first novel in the series, The Stonekeeper having only 4,398 words. The problem my brother has faced more so than the style of popular books, is that my nephew will now only read these graphic novel style books because the others are more challenging and require more focus, causing him to find them boring. I've also talked to my nieces and nephews about how their schools focus on reading, with all three of them stating that they have time to read in class, but nothing else beyond that. This isn't only a problem our family has been facing, either. The graph below from the Pew Research Center shows that overall, kid now don't read as often for fun, or at all.
    I believe this is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed. Reading is a vital skill that takes years to develop. It also disheartens me to think that my young kids now don't have that magical feeling of checking out a new library book and becoming immersed in the author's work. Hopefully, with the transition out of E-learning and back into classrooms, reading can again become a part of every child's life. 


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