Many millions of readers participate in such challenges, but scientific research has never been conducted on it. Dera, who specialises in literature education and the reading culture of young people, became fascinated by this phenomenon because a growing number of teenagers are participating in it. The young people he interviewed for his research overwhelmingly reported that, thanks to the challenge, they read more than they normally did. ‘This means that reading challenges offer serious opportunities for reading promotion bodies, but also for education,’ Dera explains. ‘For example, participants reported that they grabbed a book more often at unsupervised moments and that they were more strongly motivated to keep reading. It was also striking that a large proportion of the interviewees had distinct social memories from the challenge, from topics of conversation at a party to making new friends.'
In times of reading declines, Dera's results are undoubtedly a ray of hope. Yet the study also exposes some of the pitfalls of the challenges. Dera: ‘You can see that the challenge makes adolescents who already like reading do so even more often. But the interviews also regularly reveal that adolescents adjust their reading habits to meet their target. For instance, some participants deliberately start reading thinner or easier books so they can tick off another title. Or they read more hurriedly for fear of not completing the challenge. In times of declining reading skills, that does cast a shadow over this phenomenon.'
The article appeared in Literacy magazine and can be read here.