The Booktrust charity is giving free poetry books to thousands of reception class pupils in England to inspire a love of reading.

The Booktrust scheme will see 750,000 book packs with a poetry anthology and a story book sent to primary schools.

A survey carried out by Booktrust revealed that third of children wanted to read more poetry or have more read with them. Of over one thousand 7 to 14 year-olds surveyed, 44% said their mother didn't enjoy reading poetry with them. Half of the seven to eight-year-olds liked reading poetry compared with only 31% aged 12 to 14.

In a separate poll of over 1,500 parents, nearly a third said they never read poetry with their children, citing difficulty in finding poems they would both like or that they were too busy. 

The surveys also found that only one in three parents or carers read aloud to children on a daily basis, down from 43% in a similar survey in 2006. Having too much else to do, tiredness and cooking dinner prevented them from reading with their child.

Mothers were also more likely to read to a child than fathers: 64% were the "chief reader" to children aged four to five.

Link to full article on the BBC website

Link to Booktrust website

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