This Holiday Season … Children Ages 6–17 Want Books That ‘Make Me Laugh,’ According to ‘Sneak Peek’ of New National Study
NEW YORK, NY – To help gift givers select the right books for children this holiday season, Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, has released new data on “What Kids Want in Books – a “sneak preview” from the fifth edition of the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™. This national survey of children ages 6–17 and their parents explores attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun. In this preview of the full report, kids share what they look for when picking out books to read for fun. According to 70% of kids ages 6–17, books that “make me laugh” rank highest on the list across all ages. Among the different age groups:
- Children ages 6–8 are more likely than older children to want books with characters that “look like me.”
- Children ages 9–11 are more likely than younger children to want books that “have a mystery or a problem to solve.”
- Children ages 12–14 are more likely than older children to want books with “characters I wish I could be like because they are smart, strong or brave.”
- Children ages 15–17 are more likely than younger children to want books that help them “forget about real life for a while.”
In addition, 73% of children ages 6–17 agree with the statement, “I would read more if I could find more books that like.”
The Kids & Family Reading Report will be available in January 2015. To view and share the “What Kids Want in Books” infographic go to www.scholastic.com/readingreport. For a list of “books that make me laugh,” go to http://bit.ly/1rSCVkf.
The Kids & Family Reading Report™ is a biannual report from Scholastic and managed by YouGov. Results are from a nationally representative survey of 1,026 parents of children ages 6–17, plus one child ages 6–17 from the same household, conducted August 29, 2014 through September 10, 2014. For the full methodology, seewww.scholastic.com/readingreport.
For more information about Scholastic, visit our media room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.
