Teen Boys Stuck on Wimpy Kid as Girls Diversify Reading
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- Renaissance found that 8 of the 10 most-read books among UK boys aged 11-14 came from Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, while girls' top 10 spanned Heartstopper, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, The Hunger Games and more
- The report analyzed more than 23 million reading quizzes completed by almost 1.1 million children across UK and Ireland schools during the 2024-25 academic year
- National Literacy Trust data shows by ages 14-16, fewer than 10% of boys read daily in their spare time compared with 18% of girls
- Only 28% of secondary schools set aside at least 15 minutes a day for reading, compared with 62% of primary schools, according to a separate Renaissance survey
- Pupils scored an average of 92% on comprehension quizzes about self-chosen favourite titles versus 76% across all books read
- Bernadetta Brzyska, Renaissance's head of research, said familiar series like Wimpy Kid pull reluctant readers in but pupils need steering toward harder books to keep progressing
- The findings land during the UK government's National Year of Reading campaign, which has flagged teenage boys as a priority group after children's reading enjoyment fell to its lowest level on record
Why it matters: The report lands during the UK's National Year of Reading campaign and gives policymakers fresh evidence — drawn from 23 million quizzes by 1.1 million pupils — that the teenage reading gap links to both gendered taste patterns and a structural drop in dedicated school reading time after primary. The 92% versus 76% comprehension advantage on self-chosen favourites suggests guided choice, not banned Wimpy Kid, is the lever schools and librarians now have to pull.
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