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Abstract
The importance of supporting children’s reading engagement and reading comprehension from the early years is widely acknowledged, particular for children growing up in areas characterized by socioeconomic challenges. This mission is collectively shared by teachers and librarians, although with differing starting points and responsibilities. This paper draws on a Swedish study of librarians’ book talks with eight-year-old students in Grade 2 and their teachers, and the views these participants express on reading and children’s literature. The methods used were observation and interview. In the analysis, different views appear regarding what reading is and might mean, such as the role that children’s literature plays in this. The results indicate two prominent narratives regarding reading, where one has a clear emphasis on being able to read and where the other stresses the pleasure of reading. Both these discourses display a narrowness regarding genres other than fiction literature, languages other than Swedish, and formats other than printed books. Further, an image of the reading child as an individual reader appears in both discourses. The results highlight the need for a broader approach that integrates functional reading with processes of reflection and active language use, drawing on the content in children’s literature, with an awareness of multilingual considerations. It is argued that children’s literature plays an important role in children developing a view of themselves as readers, and discovering that there are many ways to be a reader.
Highlights
Many Swedish children enjoy listening to books being read to them by their parents or other family members; they read printed books and/or listen to audio books as well as borrowing books from the local library in their spare time
Evaluations carried out by the Swedish Media Council show that for the last two decades, a majority of children in Sweden are active on the Internet and that this occupation takes up a large amount of their free time (Swedish Media Council, 2017a, 2017b, 2019)
The results shed light on what the participating librarians see as being the purpose of book talks for children in general, as well as on what is happening during each observed book talk
Summary
Many Swedish children enjoy listening to books being read to them by their parents or other family members; they read printed books and/or listen to audio books as well as borrowing books from the local library in their spare time. In this way, they become socialized in using and making meaning from children’s literature, in terms of developing positive experiences, attitudes and habits regarding reading. Evaluations of Swedish children’s reading and media habits reveal that an increasing number of children read printed books and/or listen to books to a lesser degree than in the past, or not at all (Nordicom, 2016; SOU, 2012; Swedish Media Council, 2017a, 2017b, 2019; Swedish National Agency for Education, 2017, 2019). Since it takes time to create positive habits regarding fictional and non-fictional literature, children and young people are dependent on contexts where they are motivated to experience literature together with others in various ways and, over time, on their own
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