The Guardian view on children’s books: read more, more often | Editorial

Reading to children introduces them to a better, more spacious world. We must nourish it

World Book Day coincided this year with the release of two surveys, one showing that fewer than half the parents in the UK read to their children daily, and another revealing that household spending on digital entertainment had for the first time surpassed that on the printed word. One reaction might be wonder that it took so long; these figures might seem pretty optimistic to anyone who cares about literacy. But then there is the news that Northampton county council, bleeding to death from cuts in central government funding, is to close 21 libraries and open another 21 for only one day a week. That is not just a retreat from any ambition of universal provision but a panicked rout. It could take decades to recover the ground abandoned.

The collapse of public libraries turns reading into a matter of class distinction. Those children whose parents read to them will enjoy, in every sense, huge advantages over those who do not. Reading books is not just a matter of the technical skill of turning marks on paper into words in the mind. Schools can and do teach that, albeit perhaps a little later, and albeit with varying success. But that skill really is only the beginning.

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from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2FeDYX3