World Book Day 2026 took place on Thursday 5th March and Richard attended the charity's parliamentary event to support their mission to encourage all children to discover the fun of reading.
New figures released by the Charity show that only 1 in 3 children enjoy reading and that reading for pleasure is at its lowest level since 2005. Children have told the charity that it feels like something they have to do, not what they choose to do and 29% of children think reading is a subject to learn, rather than a fun thing to do, and 28% of Gen Z parents hold that same view.
Richard Fuller MP said:
Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.
World Book Day champions reading for fun by distributing 23.5 million £1 book tokens annually, mostly direct to schools. Each year, they select 12 newly created £1 book titles which are printed by UK publishers and stocked by 4,000+ booksellers for children to choose their own book for free.
