Yours to keep: a note on book ownership

The recent headlines tell us that 1 in 3 children own no books. As an organisation at the forefront of bookgifting programmes we find this statistic surprising. Since 1992 Booktrust has gifted over 42 million books to children and families, and in the last year alone nearly 3 million children received books through Bookstart, Booktime and Booked Up.

However, because of the age profile of the respondents in the National Literacy Trust survey (between 8 and 17) many will not have received a bookgift from one of Booktrust's bookgifting programmes.

Booked Up, our programme for Year 7 pupils in England, provides excitement, motivation and a 'buzz' around reading, with pupils choosing their own book from a list of 17 titles. Independent research found that before taking part in Booked Up only 4% of 11-year-olds said they had no books of their own at home. Quite a difference from the 1 in 3 reported in the Evening Standard in June and December.

It perhaps doesn't need spelling out, but it is worth remembering that many studies have recognised the positive correlation between book ownership and educational attainment. As recently as last year, research from Nevada (Evans et al., 2010) found that the number of books in the home has as great an impact on children's attainment as parental education levels.

From our extensive experience of reaching huge numbers of children through our bookgifting programmes we have found that although putting books into homes is a hugely valuable exercise, providing additional support in the form of guidance and signposts is also vital in nurturing readers of the future and embedding a culture of reading in the home.

Findings from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009 found that in almost all countries, students who enjoy reading are significantly more likely to be good readers. The study found that just under 40 per cent of pupils in England never read for enjoyment. The difference in reading ability between these pupils and those who read for enjoyment for 30 minutes per day was equivalent to a year's schooling.  

The books you own are very special - but providing books alone is not the answer; offering inspiration, excitement, enjoyment, guidance, choice and support is also fundamental in fostering a positive and sustained relationship with books and reading. 

Delivering Bookstart over the last 20 years has taught us the absolute necessity of working in partnership to help parents in their role as providers of advice and guidance. The health professionals who gift the Bookstart packs to new parents talk to them about the ways in which book and rhyme sharing in the home can be a fun and unintimidating way to bond with their baby. Public libraries are also a key Bookstart partner and parents receive information about how to join their libraries, through which they can access a huge number of books to satisfy the curiosity of any child.

Whilst borrowing books may not have the same impact as giving a child a book of their own, it is a fantastic resource to help children develop their taste in reading and keep a constant stream of new and exciting books coming into the home.

With Bookstart and our other programmes we are working to develop an increasing number of partnerships to reach all families - including those currently not accessing mainstream services. In this way, Booktrust is working not only to increase ownership of books (in print and digitally) but also to meet the cultural and educational challenge of building the next generation of confident readers.

Read Bali Rai's (Booktrust's Writer in Residence) response to the report