This week, the Secret Teacher talks about their unorthodox route towards discovering the joy of reading.

I feel like I come from a different perspective than a lot of English teachers when it comes to reading. The narrative you often get from English teachers is that they fell in love with a series of books, like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit, and then they will be serial readers from thereon in.

My story of reading is bumpy and nonlinear. If there ever was a series of books that engrossed me it was the Harry Potter series, but even though I was gifted those books at the age of six or seven, I didn’t read them until my teens.

My love of reading came from a particular sort of journalism. This has informed parents night conversations that I’ve had. I really believe that if you want to foster a joy of reading and you’re having no luck with David Walliams or J.K. Rowling, you simply just need to ask yourself ‘what do I know about my child? What are their........

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