The Sydney Weekend magazine in The Daily Telegraph (July 26-27, 2025) recently published an extract by Megan Daley, author of Raising Readers: How to Nurture a Child's Love of Books. A new edition of her 2019 book has just been published.
She believes in the Science of Reading, which draws from neuroscience, linguistics, and cognitive psychology, asserting that reading and writing are not natural skills like speaking but need deliberate teaching.
Daley also suggests parents:
- Advocate for evidence-based literacy instruction
- Understand how reading works
- Support children at home with rich oral and print language environments
- Collaborate with educators and specialists (e.g., speech pathologists, psychologists)
For me, this reinforces what I see in the library each day. Children need more than access to books. They need explicit support and encouragement to become confident readers. The research is important, but so too is the human side of teaching — the conversations, the joy of sharing stories, and the chance to guide a student towards a book that sparks their interest.
As teacher librarians, we can bridge research and practice. We create spaces where reading feels valued, support colleagues in evidence-based literacy, and help families see the vital role they play. Each child who moves from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” is a reminder that raising readers is both science and art.
