What is Get Into Reading?

Get Into Reading is Eason’s countrywide campaign with children’s literacy at its heart. In response to eye-opening results from a major survey* on the nation’s reading habits, we’re aiming to both promote reading to young children and encourage adults to reappraise their love of reading.

To achieve this, we’re focusing on two central initiatives:

1. Online Pledge Form

We’re asking everybody who believes in this cause to pledge their support online at www.easons.com/getintoreading. For every thousand names pledged, we’ll give an exclusive hamper of Eason Story Time books to a primary school chosen by a pledger! Click here to pledge your support.

2. Eason Story Time

Each Saturday at 11am in every Eason store in the country, we’ll read a specially selected children’s book to children and adults alike, so thousands of people can enjoy the same book at the same time in over 60 different locations! Make sure to check the Easons.com Blog and www.easons.com/getintoreading regularly for previews of each week’s book. See below for the books we’re reading over the first 20 weeks:

July 28th – Ravenous Beast by Niamh Sharkey
August 4th – Hugless Douglas by David Melling
August 11th – The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
August 18th – Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
August 25th – Dirty Great Dinosaurs by Martin Waddell
September 1st – The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
September 8th – Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker Rees
September 15th – Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
September 22nd – The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles
September 29th – The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers
October 6th – A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton
October 13th – The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
October 20th – Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
October 27th – Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell
November 3rd – The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
November 10th – Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
November 17th – The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
November 24th – Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
December 1st – I’m a Happy Hugglewug by Niamh Sharkey
December 8th – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

Survey Results

Among the most striking results from the survey carried out by Amarach*, commissioned by Eason in December 2011, were the following:

• Almost one in five (18%) Irish parents of children under the age of 8 never read to their children.
• Over two-thirds (68%) of Irish people believe that a favourite book can tell a lot about someone’s personality and a similar proportion (69%) perceive a well-read person to be intelligent.
• One-third (32%) cite time pressures as the main preventative to reading more to their child and 40% have given this as an excuse in telling a child that they cannot read to them.
• Four-in-five (84%) Irish people were encouraged to read by their parents and almost 7-in-10 members of the Irish public (69%) were read to as a child.
• A quarter of the Irish public reads for five or more hours each week and those who were read to as a child are 30% more likely to spend 5 or more hours a week reading than those who were not read to as a child.
• The internet outranks books in a preference to what to do with their spare time (43% read books, 52% surf the internet).
• A quarter of the Irish public reads for five or more hours each week and those who were read to as a child are 30% more likely to spend 5 or more hours a week reading than those who were not read to as a child.

(All results from this survey commissioned by Eason reflect a recent OECD** report into the role of parents in a child’s education using the results of a survey of 28million 15 year olds through 74 countries. Among the many results that make up the report, it was clear that the regular reading to young children benefited their development.)

How Can You Get Into Reading?

Pledge your support; tell your friends; spread the word; attend Story Time in your local Eason store; read some books; read to a child; get a child to read to you; encourage your friends and family to read more often; take time to read; make time to read; get lost in a book, find your way back out and get lost in another… there are tons of ways to Get Into Reading. If you can think of any more – tell us about it by leaving a comment below!

*National Survey was undertaken by Amarach in December 2011 with a sample of 1000 people aged over 16 years of age.
**The Parent Factor in Education. Francesca Borgonovi, May 2012.