Christopher Lloyd is author of many non-fiction children’s books including Absolutely Everything! and the editor of Britannica’s All New Children’s Encyclopaedia
You know that moment when a child comes of age – it’s that time when, at about the age of five, they start (and can’t stop) asking questions. Why do elephants have trunks? Why does my tummy rumble? Why can’t I meet a T.rex? Why…? Why….? Why…..?
It is understandable that after a few car journeys of relentless questioning, adults may start to feel a little jaded and turn up Bluey or something similar to drown out the barrage of questions. But that is the moment to stop, think and listen. Because, behind the questioning, is a simple but super-powerful reality – your child is telling you they want to read!
In the last few years, there’s been an unprecedented drop in levels of reading for pleasure amongst children. Screen-based media is largely, though not entirely, to blame.
What’s the link between screen addiction and a lack of enthusiasm to read? I believe it’s simple. Reading requires concentration, focus and brain work. Essentially, as we learn to read, our brains turn written words into pictures in our minds – it’s called, and for good reason, our imagination – images are a language brains have evolved to use over millions of years.
But watch a screen and there’s no need for an imagination – because the screen does the visualisation for us. We are reduced to consumers, not creators. The difference between reading and viewing is fundamental to developing information processing, creative thinking and expressive skills. Without it, we can never reach our individual potential.
This is where non-fiction can come to the rescue. The vast majority of children who reach that magical moment of asking the question why? are doing so because they have an itch that desperately needs scratching. It’s a mental itch to find out about the real world around them, which is far more fascinating than anything you can make up. This is the moment we can seize on to embed a love reading using brilliant non-fiction books for all ages.
My First Big Book of Why? (Britannica Books, 2021) and My First Big Book of How? (What on Earth Books, 2024) are two of my non-fiction publishing company’s biggest and best sellers – in myriad languages worldwide. The topic is hardly new, however. Remember the wonderful Hamlyn Book of Why? It was one of my absolute favourites when I was aged six. I was researching – I needed to know why? – and reading this book was key to finding out more about what I found insatiably fascinating.
In today’s excellent offerings of quality non-fiction books, children of all ages will be able to find a topic that they are captivated by. This could be anything from animal facts to books about science or crazy inventions in books like The World’s First Rollercoaster and Other Amazing Inventions by Mike Barfield and Franziska Höllbacher, to even more niche topics like The Book of Dirt: A smelly history of dirt, disease and human hygiene by Piotr Socha and Monika Utnik-Strugala.
And then there’s the dopamine-fueled serendipity of a children’s encyclopedia such as Britannica’s All New Children’s Encyclopedia, What We Know and What We Don’t, which has sold more than one million copies in 30 languages in five years.
Why so popular? For exactly the same reason that the Guinness Book of World Records sells more copies than any other book every Christmas. It fulfils the absolute need of children to exercise their appetite for research – sometimes called curiosity. Reading quality factual books is one of the best tools available to help scratch that itch.
As you can tell, I’m a staunch champion for non-fiction as the best incentive to encourage children to develop a lifelong love of reading, because, as years of working with young people has taught me, most of them find that the real world is even more amazing that anything you can make up.
The new edition of Britannica’s All New Children’s Encyclopedia, What We Know and What We Don’t, is out now.
