New study suggests that boys aged between 11 to 14 mostly read Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, whereas girls belonging from the same age range had expanded their tastes, reading books from wide range of authors and genres, such as Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.
The results show how much boys' and girls' reading preferences shift by the time they reach key stage 3, according to the education technology company Renaissance's annual What Kids Are Reading study.
The study examined almost 23 million reading tests that over 1.1 million students in UK and Irish schools took during the 2024–2025 school year.
Researchers claim that the trend represents broader differences in reading habits outside of the classroom. An earlier National Literacy Trust research found that between the ages of 14 and 16, less than 10% of boys and 18% of girls read daily in their free time.
Dedicated school reading time sometimes substantially declines after primary school. A previous Renaissance survey found that only 28% of secondary schools and 62% of primary schools set aside at least 15 minutes each day for reading.
Research also shows that children read books and did best in quizzes when the book being read is of their choice. They don’t feel like reading, especially as boys, as books are irrelevant or uninspiring.
This is a call to action that children, mostly boys, are slowly straying away from reading, which can affect intellectual growth and emotional development.