...By Joseph Benjamin for TDPel Media.
Children are reading more books, thanks to a new trend on TikTok known as “BookTok”.
The 2023 What Kids Are Reading Report revealed that the number of books read by children in the last academic year increased by 24% compared to the previous year.
Social media trends, including BookTok, encourage children to read popular books such as Alice Osman’s Heartstopper series.
Joan Mill, Group Managing Director at Renaissance International, said that the emergence of authors like Alice Osman was worth noting, as she is a prominent star of BookTok, alongside established favourites like Julia Donaldson and Jeff Kinney.
The BookTok trend, which has 130 billion views on TikTok, includes hashtags like #BookTokChallenge and #BookTokClub, which have also garnered hundreds of millions of views.
The hashtag #YABooks for young adult fiction and #KidsBooks are also popular.
Readers on TikTok use the platform to review books they have read and recommend them to their followers.
Some of the young adult books popular with TikTok creators include Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, both of which have been adapted into a Netflix TV show and film series, respectively.
The report also found that Jeff Kinney and David Walliams are favourite authors among primary school children, while secondary school children prefer Kinney, Walliams, and Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
Colleen Hoover was top of the list of favourite authors among students in years nine, 10, and 11, with her book It Ends with Us.
The book has been popular on TikTok, with the hashtag #ItEndsWithUs having over two billion views, and #ColleenHoover having nearly four billion views.
Hoover and Oseman were both cited as favourite authors among secondary school students.
The rise of BookTok has allowed young people to access book recommendations and reviews more easily than before.
This trend also encourages children to read books they might not have come across otherwise.
Social media platforms like TikTok can be a powerful tool in promoting literacy and helping children develop a love for reading.
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