Reading by Right

Book excerpt: Literacy has now been recognized as a human right for over 50 years in several international declarations and initiatives. Every child has a right to read and we have a social responsibility, as parents, teachers, librarians, publishers, booksellers, campaigners and policy makers to ensure that they are able to exercise that right. Reading by Right: Successful strategies to ensure every child can read to succeed provides a collection of chapters from international experts covering aspects of overcoming reading difficulties or reading reluctance in children and young people. The book reveals strategies that are proving effective in overcoming barriers to reading from birth to teens, looking at practices and projects from around the globe and revealing some common principles and drivers that have generated success. Content covered includes: an examination of the current state of reading in the UK and internationally and what the latest research tells us about children who are failing to readhow youngsters become ‘reluctant readers’ and how to improve the situation for everyoneexamples of successful projects from the Republic of Korea and Finland – countries that consistently perform well in reading tests and international league tablesanalysis of diversity in publishing and children’s books, drawing on expertise from authors and publishers. This book will be valuable for readers from all those professions that engage with young people and families and with the development of literacy, including librarians; teachers; service managers; consultants and other professional practitioners; and also to concerned parents.