I do think parents take some responsibility here too. School is there to teach you TO read. Parents have to encourage a love of reading and demonstrate it. If I ask my friends who don't read, if their parents read, the answer is no.

I picked up reading becuase my dad reads. He would read the hobbit to me at night, and lord of the rings. I would SEE him reading and ask about the stories and be so fascinated by these other worlds. And then at 8/9 when I started reading novels, he would share HIS books with me, and read the things I picked up and we would discuss Harry potter and eragon and whatever else I'd picked up. He was always happy to take me to the book shop and buy me books, never complained that I read them too fast or that they were too expensive, never told me I couldn't read something becuase it was adult fantasy and not child or young adult.

And if non of that had happened, if he hadn't of cared or shared that with me, I probably never would have picked up a book, and I certainly wouldn't be a reader to the extent I am now.

I adore the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman. Read them when I was a teen and I still love them, and yet I've never known of anyone else whos even heard of them

I often say, for such a short book, it sure did feel like it took me a lifetime to read. It is one of the dullest looks I've ever read.