Biblioracle: ‘Harry Potter’-mania had young people reading books for fun. Why has that stopped?

In the years when I was teaching at Clemson University (2005-2011), it was a virtual guarantee that just about every student had read at least one book entirely for pleasure and under their own initiative.

In fact, by 2007, I could be confident many of them had read at least seven books for pleasure because 2007 marks the publication year of the final volume of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

In many cases, Potter-mania had transferred to other books and authors that came out in that era. “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games” and the early books of John Green were probably the most common.

As a reader, I was not especially enthralled with the “Harry Potter” books. I’d argue that Susan Cooper’s “The Dark Is Rising” series is the superior adventure series mixing fantasy and folklore. More importantly, however, from an instructor’s perspective, it was nice to know that students had the experience of grappling with book-length texts in terms of their reading stamina and scope of analysis.

Unfortunately, this may no longer be a safe assumption. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress report findings released earlier this year, the percentage of students who “read for fun” every day has declined from 27% in 2012 to 14% in 2023.

One factor at work is the increasing embrace of prepackaged literature curricula such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s “Into Reading” and “Into Literature,” which are designed to help low-performing students pass standardized reading assessments, and which almost exclusively rely on short excerpts of much larger texts.

This curriculum is rooted in the so-called “science of reading” movement, which argues that students need more explicit phonics instruction in order to become proficient readers. Fair enough, but literacy is about much more than pronouncing words. Literacy is a broader practice that requires the building of an array of knowledge, as well as exposure to a number of different reading experiences, one of which is reading and responding to book-length texts.

In New York City, where the study of book-length texts was once central to instruction, many public school students will go an entire year without reading a book from start to finish. Advanced Placement exams, supposedly a substitute for college-level work and credit, also privilege primarily interacting with excerpts or summaries of books, rather than digesting the full, genuine article.

I’m trying not to descend into old man yelling at cloud mode here, but this ain’t good.

Sure, the “Harry Potter” generation was something of a one-off deal, a massive phenomenon that got rolling before the overwhelming presence of digital culture, but it’s not like we have a shortage of compelling books for young people being written and published. In fact, the diversity and range of what’s being published has only been increasing year-to-year, meaning there’s likely to be a book for every reader.

We know from long-standing research that what happens in the home has a significant effect on whether or not children become readers as adults, but the signals that schooling sends about the value and purpose of books are plenty important as well.

Absenting the reading of whole books from school in order to prepare for high-stakes tests is not a long-term recipe for success. Raising reader scores only to have a generation for whom the unique challenges and pleasures of reading books are entirely foreign would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.

There probably isn’t another “Harry Potter” coming to sweep young people off their reading feet. We need to build the culture we want into the everyday work of learning.

John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “Maddalena and the Dark” by Julia Fine

2. “Gone to the Wolves” by John Wray

3. “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler

4. “Real Life” by Brandon Taylor

5. “Lone Women” by Victor LaValle

— Sarah C., Boston

I think Sarah will take to the gothic spookiness of Sarah Waters’ “The Little Stranger.”

1. “Crook Manifesto” by Colson Whitehead

2. “Lone Women” by Victor LaValle

3. “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin

4. “The Italian Teacher” by Tom Rachman

5. “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan

— Jane W., Indianapolis

I can’t find a direct link to why my Biblioracle sensors are recommending Wiley Cash’s “The Last Ballad,” but the signals are strong, and I trust it is a good fit for Jane.

1. “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese

2. “Grief is the Thing with Feathers” by Max Porter

3. “White Noise” by Don DeLillo

4. “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett

5. “Pineapple Street” by Jenny Jackson

— Laura P., Chicago

I’m just starting James McBride’s new novel, “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store,” so he’s on my mind, and it seems like his historio-comic masterpiece, “The Good Lord Bird” might fit what Laura’s looking for.

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Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com