Search for reading corners and you'll find tents, fairy lights, matching cushions and perfectly arranged shelves. They're lovely. Many of them are used about twice.
A reading corner a child will use looks less impressive and works much better. Here is what matters.
Comfort first
Something soft to sit or lie on. A beanbag, floor cushions, a corner of the sofa. Children read in strange positions. Let them.
Good light
Warm and bright enough to read by, without needing an adult to switch on the big light. A lamp they can reach is better than a beautiful one they can't.
Books at their height, facing out
Children choose books by their covers. Spines on a high shelf are invisible to them. A low shelf or a basket with covers facing out changes everything.
- Keep only ten to fifteen books there at a time
- Swap a few every week or two, so it always feels new
- Include comics, non-fiction and old favourites, not only “good” books
- Leave one book open, as if someone just stopped reading
Make it theirs
Let them name it, choose one thing for it, decide what goes in it. A corner they helped make is a corner they'll defend.
Keep the screens out
Not as a rule. Just as a fact of the corner. It's the one place in the house where a book doesn't have to compete.
A reading corner works when it's the easiest, cosiest place to be, not the most beautiful.
The secret ingredient
You. Sit there sometimes with your own book. Children go where the grown-ups they love go.
The 10-Minute Bedtime Reading Habit I'd Start Tonight
You don't need to buy anything. Find one corner today, add a cushion, a lamp and a basket of books, and see if it gets used this week.
I read, I choose, and I write about the books that stay with me. I also write The Keeper Chronicles.
Raising readers, one week at a time.
Once a week: a short personal note, one article about reading or family life, one practical idea to try, and a question you can answer just by replying. One email a week, never a sales pitch.
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