By Christina Mitchell
COVID spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for the nation’s kids, erasing decades of academic progress.
Reading took a severe hit. The National Assessment of Educational Progress – known as the “nation’s report card” – showed that during the pandemic, reading scores dropped to 1992 levels. But even more troubling may be the National Literacy Trust’s finding that the “sheer joy of reading” at home may also be waning.
Just one in three children and young people from 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024, the trust found. Reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8% over the past year alone, and are at their lowest since 2005.
“It is a serious wakeup call for us all,” warned Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
One organization recently attempted to influence that trend with a statewide literacy event. The New Jersey Center for the Book (NJCB) hosted a virtual meeting on Dec. 5 that brought together students from fourth to sixth grade and six children’s authors. It reached 28 schools across the state and two public libraries.
The estimate is that the one-day effort reached more than 350 students in New Jersey.
“The New Jersey Center for the Book’s central mandate has always been to promote literature and literacy throughout our wonderful state,” noted NJCB chairman and one of the event’s participating authors, Wil Mara.
“Everyone involved played a crucial role: the educators, our board of directors, and a panel of New Jersey’s most experienced authors and illustrators, resulting in one of the most impactful programs in the center’s history.”
NJCB is an affiliate of the Library of Congress – which partly funded the virtual program – and it partners with the Rutgers School of Communication and Information and the New Jersey Association of School Librarians.
The students were treated to conversations with six authors and illustrators who included Danny Adlerman, author of “Mommy’s Having a Watermelon”; Wendy Mass, who wrote “The Candymakers”; and Trinka Hakes Noble, writer and illustrator of “The Orange Shoes.”
The event included question-and-answer sessions with authors who participate in the NJCB’s mystery e-series, “The Jersey Trackers,” which focuses on state themes that support school curriculum through stories about a children’s librarian and his book club of six “curious, inventive and adventurous young readers,” otherwise known as “trackers.”
Mara touched on the reason for the literacy event, which, if nothing else, may help return kids to the “sheer joy of reading” at home.
“If the end result of our efforts among the up-and-coming generation is a greater appreciation for the inexhaustible value of reading, then we have accomplished our mission,” Mara stated. “That’s why the New Jersey Center for the Book exists.”
Best-selling “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling may have said it best.
“I will defend the importance of bedtime stories,” she observed, “to my last gasp.”
To view the Meet the Authors and Illustrators presentation, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxb9qMEPuH8
The New Jersey Trackers e-series is available at www.njcenterforthebook.org
