Lots of Americans have strong — and largely positive — feelings about reading to children. A new YouGov poll finds 53% say they love reading books to children, and another 25% like it. 14% are neutral about reading to children and only 3% say they dislike or hate it.
Americans who have or have had children, Americans who are more active readers themselves, and Americans who say that when they were children they were read to frequently are all more likely to say they love reading to kids than those who are not in those groups.
Americans with more education are more likely than those with less education to say they were read to often as children — and to enjoy reading to children. Younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to say they were frequently read to — but not more likely to enjoy reading to children.
Among the 81% of Americans who say they've ever read to children, 50% say they love reading picture books. 37% love reading rhyming books, and 27% love reading chapter books. Also among this group, 64% say it's very important that children's books are enjoyable to read out loud, 57% say it's very important that they have interesting pictures, and 51% say it's very important that they have an educational message. 24% say it's very important that they know the book from their childhood, and only 11% say it's very important that parts of the book are aimed at adults.
YouGov asked Americans about their favorite children's books, letting respondents reply in their own words. Dr. Seuss and Seuss books such as "The Cat in the Hat" were the most frequently mentioned, along with Margaret Wise Brown's "Goodnight Moon," Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are," and E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web."
Less than half of Americans who have ever read books to children say they always (18%) or usually (27%) perform character voices. 36% say they do voices sometimes, and 16% say they do them rarely (8%) or never (8%).
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,034 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Vince Bucci / Stringer)
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