Parents & Children
How to Help a Child Who Reads Slowly Without Making Them Feel Behind
Speed is the thing everyone notices. It's rarely the thing that matters most.
1 min read
Stories
Stories about reading,
children and family life.
Personal essays and practical ideas about raising readers, reluctant readers, family evenings and relationships, and the books that sometimes help us understand all of it.
Editor's selection
Parents & Children
Nobody Called It the Slow Group. Every Child Knew Anyway.
On the reading table nobody names out loud, what it teaches children about themselves, and the reader I write for.
2 min read
Parents & Children
Is My Child Behind in Reading? What Parents Should Look For
Is my child behind in reading, or just reading at their own pace? What's normal varies more than parents think. The signs worth paying attention to, the ones that aren't, and when to talk to a teacher.
2 min read
Parents & Children
Your Child Keeps Choosing the Same Book. Should You Let Them?
Why do children want the same book read again and again? Rereading builds confidence, language and comfort. Why it's worth saying yes, and gentle ways to add something new without taking the favourite away.
1 min read
The Weekly Letter
One letter a week about reading and family life.
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.
Parents & Children
Reading with children is rarely only about books.
Parents & Children
What Age Should a Child Start Reading Independently?
There's a range, not a deadline. And being read to doesn't stop when reading alone begins.
1 min read
Love & Relationships
Stories about the ways we find each other, lose each other and sometimes find our way back.
Love & Relationships
20 Questions to Ask Your Partner Instead of “How Was Your Day?”
“Fine” is not an answer. It's a door closing politely.
1 min read
Reading Life
Our odd, changing, lifelong relationship with reading itself.
Reading Life
The Books That Find Us When Life Isn't Going Well
Some books arrive exactly when we need them. That isn't a coincidence.
1 min read
More from Reading Life
Books & Reviews
Reviews with a point of view: what a book understands about people, and what didn't work.
Books & Reviews
15 Books to Read Before Your Child Turns 7
Not a checklist. A shelf of stories worth sharing while they still want you to read them aloud.
Life & Us
The ordinary, unglamorous parts of being a person, and the books that sometimes help with them.
Life & Us
Sunday Notes: The Things Our Children Will Actually Remember
A short note for a slow day.
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Latest stories
Parents & Children
How to Choose Books for a Reluctant Reader
Choosing books for a reluctant reader is less about levels and more about hooks. How to find books a child who avoids reading will open, finish and ask about, with simple questions to guide every choice.
1 min read · 28 October 2026
Parents & Children
10 Questions to Ask Your Child After Reading a Book
Ten questions to ask children after a story that open a real conversation instead of testing them. No right answers, no comprehension quiz, just ways into what your child noticed and felt.
1 min read · 22 October 2026
Parents & Children
What to Do When Your Child Says “Reading Is Boring”
“Reading is boring” is one of the most common things children say about books. What it usually means, what not to say back, and practical ways to help a child find a book that isn't.
1 min read · 21 October 2026
Parents & Children
Why Some Children Love Books and Others Avoid Them
Why does one child devour books while another avoids them? It's rarely intelligence or laziness. The quieter reasons children turn away from reading, and what a parent can change.
1 min read · 19 October 2026
Parents & Children
The 10-Minute Bedtime Reading Habit I'd Start Tonight
Bedtime reading doesn't need an hour, a perfect book or a calm child. A ten-minute habit that fits into an ordinary evening, and why its smallness is exactly what makes it last.
1 min read · 16 October 2026
Parents & Children
When a Child Can Read but Doesn't Want To
Your child can read, the teacher says they're fine, and still they never pick up a book. Why reading ability and reading desire are different things, and gentle ways to build the second one at home.
1 min read · 15 October 2026