I’m having many interesting conversations in the shop about books and children, and I’ve been doing some reading of research findings on the topic. Two things I found yesterday: one piece of research that found that the children who read well and carried on learning well had been read to, but also had interactive experieces with that reading, being asked about the book, the story, the characters: “What might happen next?” etc.  I also came across research suggesting that for boys to be good readers and learners, a male role model who read to them was a very positive factor. If only mothers read to children, some boys reject reading as a female activity.  So Dads reading to boys are doing them a lifelong favour, because reading is so critical to so much of education. Far from becoming less important with computers, it’s even more so.