Research and innovation
Learning and innovation are at the heart of BookTrust’s work. All our learning and co-creation activities contribute to understanding and measuring what works to get children and families reading.
Our research
Our research gives us unique insights into the lives of the families we work with and what works to build the reading habits that bring immediate and lifelong benefits to the children who need it most.
Use the links below to explore the research, innovation and evaluation activities that inform our research-based behaviour change programmes.
Read our recent reports
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This briefing provides an overview of BookTrust’s own insights and wider research which demonstrates that reading is not just a literacy or learning activity, but a relational one.
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This briefing provides insights into the role reading and sharing stories can play in kinship care families’ lives and the types of support they find most meaningful.
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This briefing provides insights into the decline in children’s reading enjoyment as they progress through school and the vital role teachers play in nurturing reading enjoyment.
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This briefing provides highlights the extent of the influence that enjoyment has on nurturing generational reading habits.
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This research briefing provides an in-depth understanding of how children’s reading habits evolve during their crucial first years.
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Read about the importance of shared reading in the early years, and how our Bookstart Baby programmes can support this.
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Read about the importance of reading for children experiencing vulnerability and the learning that underpins how BookTrust is encouraging reading habits.
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Research with families from low-income backgrounds in the UK.
The benefits of reading
Our in-depth look at the many ways reading supports children, produced in partnership with the Open University.
Find out moreOur impact
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Understanding the impact of our work is central to BookTrust’s mission. Find out how our programmes are making a difference in every community in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to get families reading.
Who we work with
Learning oversight group
Our research, evaluation and learning activities are supported by expert input from our Learning Oversight Group. Meet the members of the group and find out more about how the group supports learning at BookTrust
Further collaborations
We collaborate with a range of academic, voluntary and practitioner partners to deliver our research. If you are interested in research collaboration with us, we’d like to hear from you.
If you’re interested in collaborating with us please do get in touch with our research team to find out more by emailing [email protected]