The Importance of Reading

2026, The National Year of Reading

Escaping into a good book starts young. Plant the seed early and it will grow but where’s the proof?

Well the advantage of reading to children from a young age has featured in a serious academic debate, especially with regard to advantage and disadvantage. This is because of the profound impacts reading has on early language development, comprehension and critical thinking skills.

Professor Adam Swift [University of Warwick] famously highlighted this idea, stating: “Parents who read to their kids should be thinking about how they’re unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children by doing so.”

Wow! That’s a thought! People are seriously debating if we should be reading to children, because the developmental advantages associated make it unfair on children who don’t have anyone to read to them.

More obviously, Dr Lucy Rodriguez Leon [senior lecturer at The Open University and contributor to Book Trust] highlights just how influential early exposure to reading can be:

“A substantial body of high-quality research consistently confirms that early reading is a key driver for children’s speech, language and literacy. Importantly, studies also show it goes further – nurturing critical thinking and reasoning skills that underpin success throughout school and beyond.”

So many benefits! Not just for primary aged children but for adults too! So let’s get reading, imagining, laughing…. It’s all just positive energy for the good.

To help you, Yellowbird Education is delighted to share our carefully curated year-group reading lists as a part of the 2026 National Year of Reading. This National initiative highlights the importance of creating good reading habits at a young age.

We’ve done the research so you don’t have to. Hopefully some of these books will inspire and challenge, and, by doing so, support your child’s development in key skills such as critical thinking, reasoning, communication and empathy.