Study Suggests Potential Relationship Between Films and Literacy: A new research study has compiled a list of children’s favourite books which suggests that those which have been made in to films are more popular with younger readers. Six of the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, feature in the list, along with The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The findings, which are based on a survey of more than 400,000 children across 2,000 UK primary and secondary schools, showed that the best performing books across all age groups were, in joint first place, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games, and has just been released in cinemas in the UK.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets shared fourth position with Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini, whilst eight titles all shared sixth place three of the remaining Harry Potter books, The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lost Hero (Rick Riordan), Divergent (Veronica Roth) and The Fault in Our Stars (John Green).

Study Suggests Potential Relationship Between Films and Literacy

Whilst calculations carried out by the researchers – based on the complexity of words, language used and sentence length –  suggest the reading age for the Harry Potter series is between 11-12, the findings also suggest that the books are very popular with younger readers. Indeed, one of the series is the second most popular book among Year 2 pupils (aged between six and seven years old) and three of the top five books picked by children in Year 3 are also Harry Potter novels.

Although the study, which will be released in full later this year, is unlikely to confirm any causal link, its authors – Renaissance Learning – have suggested that films, computer games and other branded materials linked to books may be responsible for boosting literacy.

Viv Bird, Chief Executive of the Booktrust charity, said that:

“We are seeing more and more of this trend for films sending young people back to books. It can be a reciprocal relationship and can actually help turn reluctant readers round, which can only be a good thing.”

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