New federal data should give every parent and teacher pause this summer. According to the National Center for Education Statistics' latest Nation's Report Card, only 37% of 9-year-olds say they read for fun almost every day — down from 53% in 2012.
Among 13-year-olds, that number has collapsed to just 14%, down from 37% in the mid-1980s, meaning fewer than one in six of this age reads for fun on a daily basis.
"With a significant decline starting in 2012, we can clearly see that this isn't just a pandemic story," said Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
He's right. This has been building for years. And with summer vacation underway, it's worth asking what parents and teachers can actually do about it.
The good news: the educators closest to this problem have some concrete answers.
Before diving into tips, it helps to reframe the problem. Steven Shadel, a former school leader and now Senior Director, Senior National Content Specialist at Great Minds, pushes back on the narrative that kids have simply lost interest in reading.
"I think that kids are potentially more interested in stories than they've ever been," he said. "Just go to any high school and look at the enrollment for storytelling or videography. They can't get enough of it."
His point: the appetite for narrative is alive and well. What's changed is where kids are getting their stories. Print has been crowded out by video, social media, and on-demand content that offers a faster hit. The challenge isn't reigniting a love of stories. It's connecting that love back to books.
Monique Durham, Director of Regional Implementation Services at Great Minds and a former educator and principal, frames it similarly. For her, the goal is building a culture where reading isn't just an academic task but "a pathway to curiosity, identity, and knowledge building." That shift in framing — from obligation to discovery — turns out to be central to every practical tip that follows.
With digital options competing harder than ever for kids' attention outside school, Sarah Webb, former fourth-grade teacher and Senior Director, Humanities at Great Minds, argues that we can't keep waiting for the hook to happen at home.
She suggests carving out dedicated time during the school day for students to get absorbed in a book, because a kid who falls in love with a book in class is far more likely to keep reading at home.
Lori Sappington, former educator and co-host of the Melissa & Lori Love Literacy Podcast, described a simple practice: once or twice a week, she'd read the first chapter of a book she thought students would love, then have them react and discuss it.
When library day came around, she'd regularly see those same books show up in backpacks. She kept a running list on the wall all year, with sticky notes tracking which students went on to finish each one.
Lorraine Griffith, former fifth-grade teacher and now Senior Director, Content Architect at Great Minds, describes one of the most powerful dynamics she observed in her classroom: when students read a whole book together, it naturally creates a bridge to the next one.
When kids discovered that Gary Paulsen wrote sequels to Hatchet with alternate endings, she says, "they ran to the library to find it." Suggesting companion reads or series books — especially ones connected to something the class just finished together — can turn a single good experience into a reading habit.
Griffith also had her fifth-graders present a passage from their independent reading every Friday. They'd read it aloud, and classmates would offer feedback on their fluency. The effect was cumulative: dozens of book titles got quietly promoted just by students talking about what they were reading.
Sappington described a principal who took this school-wide: Students shared what they were reading on the daily announcements, and the principal made it a point to celebrate it every single day. The ripple effect through hallways and classrooms was, she said, "priceless."
Brandy Nelson, former principal and now Senior Director, Implementation and Impact Strategy at Great Minds, offers a reframe for parents worried their child "doesn't read." Her question isn't whether kids are reading — it's what they're reading, and whether adults are paying attention to what sparks their curiosity.
She uses her own experience as an example: she discovered the poet Audre Lorde not by seeking her out, but by stumbling across a reference while reading something else entirely. That accidental encounter opened a new world.
The job of a parent, she suggests, is to notice what catches a child's interest and then point them toward more of it — a book on the topic, an author who writes in that world, a story that deepens what they already love.
This matters especially in summer, when there's no teacher curating the reading list. A child obsessed with soccer, space, or a specific video game has a reading life waiting to be unlocked — if someone helps them find the books that speak to their world.
Lorraine Griffith makes a point of starting each school year by bringing in the stack of books she read over the summer and talking to her students about herself as a reader. A Reddit thread that's circulated among teachers captures the same idea even more simply: one teacher wrote that her students loved reading "because I loved reading."
The research on this is consistent: children who see adults read for pleasure are more likely to do it themselves. This summer, if you want your child to read, let them see you read, and talk about what you're reading with the same enthusiasm you'd want from them.
The NAEP results are a warning, but they're not a verdict. Soldner himself noted that the data should "inspire further investigation and more work" — not despair.
What's clear from the educators closest to this challenge is that the path forward isn't complicated. It's about building genuine reading communities — in classrooms, in schools, and at home — where books are talked about, shared, and treated as sources of real pleasure and meaning. Not test prep. Not assigned passages. Stories that open doors.
Summer is the right moment to start.