Charlie Higson, writer of the Young Bond spy novel series, has spoken out about the reading ability of children within the UK following a National Literacy Trust survey.
The survey found reading levels amongst children are at an all time low, with one in six admitting they were embarrassed to read in fear of being labeled a “geek”.
Higson said he was taking the findings with a pinch of salt, as “surveys are surveys” and advised parents not to worry if their children appear to spend more time online or playing video games.
“When I was a kid, if you wanted to entertain yourself you went out and played or watched TV on the three channels available. If you wanted real excitement, you’d have to go to books to get it. But now you’ve got computer games and I think they’re brilliant,” he said.
Higson continued by mentioning how kids are reading a lot more than they ever did before, it’s just not always in the form of a book now.
“If you play computer games, there is a lot of reading involved; if you’re talking to people on Facebook, there is a lot of reading and writing. Twitter’s the same.
“Yes, there’s a different way of communicating through screens which is probably less lengthy, but they’re still communicating to each other. There is no such thing as ‘the English language’ - it changes every day,” he said.
The author of the Young Bond series believes the key to recapturing children’s love of books is to take things slow when introducing them, and also to utilise technology to promote them.
Higson’s latest book,
The Sacrifice, uses an online trailer to appeal to younger readers and to have a presence on the internet.
“Kids spend so long on computers that if they’ve got something they can click on and look at, that’s not too long, you can grab their attention,” he said.
The Sacrifice is out September 20.
Source:
The Telegraph
