Trends in kids’ holiday reading

This summer many children and teens will be living out dystopian futures, extreme tree house adventures and spy intrigues – at least on the page.

Lazy summer school holidays are the perfect time to encourage children’s literary adventures, Massey University education expert Tom Nicholson says.

Parents should make it exciting, as children who stop reading over summer could see their reading levels slip back up to six months.

Youthspace librarian Alan Dingley said the library summer reading programme has almost 500 young people signed up to do reviews of the books they’ve read and earn rewards.

Visual storytelling was increasingly popular with many ages, he had found.

‘‘Picture books are getting very intricate and now they’re coming out for the older ones, 10- and 12-year-olds.

‘‘Geronimo Stilton is easily our most popular kids series. He’s a mouse and a reporter, but he gets involved in all sorts of misadventures.’’

The Treehouse Series, by Australians Andy Griffith and Terry Denton, is another visual smash hit.

Teens are trending toward books tackling tricky issues, including John Green and Andy Mcnab books.

‘‘There’s some really powerful youth books dealing with all sorts of things now, stories about peer pressure, anxiety and depression, to help them handle that tough time.’’

Bruce Mckenzie Books saleswoman Hannah Higgison had also noticed a rush on good visual books, including the Treehouse Series, and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

She found customers were enjoying the Reo Pepi series of bilingual picture books for younger children, which were ‘‘well thought out’’ with ‘‘beautiful illustrations’’.

Another Kiwi author winning fans was Rachel Craw, whose Spark series has earned great feedback from customers, she said.