Hachette Book Group’s Raising Readers PSA Tackles Global Reading Decline Among Children

Raising Readers is Hachette’s worldwide social impact campaign to combat the significant decline in children’s reading for pleasure, the single biggest predictor of a child’s future success.

Reading to a child for just 10 minutes changes their life.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group (HBG) and Hachette UK, announced the official Raising Readers public service announcement (PSA) that addresses the alarming decline in children reading for fun and entertainment, the single biggest predictor of a child’s future success. HBG has partnered with more than 50 organizations across industries to tackle the reading-for-pleasure crisis, including Read Ahead, PEN America, Poets & Writers, Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishers, Sourcebooks, We Need Diverse Books, The Toronto International Festival of Authors, and independent bookstores, among many others.

The PSA is a call-to-action encouraging adults to read to children for at least 10 minutes a day to help inspire a generation of lifelong readers. Research indicates that reading for pleasure and entertainment has a significant impact on a child’s future happiness and success. Even more than family circumstances, parents’ educational background, or income, reading impacts academic results, emotional well-being, economic security, communication skills, happiness, and ambition.

“Reading, as all of us who work with books know, is an activity that is both fun and mentally and spiritually nourishing. In fact, reading for pleasure as a child is the single most significant factor in future success,” Shelley said. “But we sometimes need to toot the horn for reading a little more loudly – and I hope that, together with our work getting free books to those who need them most, this PSA will do its bit to motivate and encourage more adults to read aloud to the children in their lives. I’d really like to thank all the amazing partners across the industry who helped bring this to life.”

Reading for enjoyment has seen a steep, rapid decline for more than a decade. Reading for fun among 13-year-olds has declined by nearly half since 2012 in the U.S., according to survey data published in June 2026 by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, the portion of 9-year-olds who read for fun has declined 16 percentage points in the past 13 years. Other studies have shown that the percentage of children who read for fun fell from 53% in 2012 to 39% in 2022.

In Canada, fewer children identify as frequent readers over recent years, and reading for pleasure has been declining substantially as children move into adolescence, according to Scholastic's Kids & Family Reading Report.

The Raising Readers PSA video depicts a familiar after-school moment: a father offers his daughter a book as a break from her phone. As she begins to read, the book appears to “speak,” and its pages glow with warm light—symbolizing imagination coming to life. The 50-second video concludes with the duo reading together, reinforcing the campaign message that “Reading Is Golden,” to help children become healthier, happier, and more confident learners.

Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon joined the global Raising Readers campaign as its audio spokesperson, offering a special message in Hachette audiobooks that highlights the importance of children reading for fun and how adults can take action to spark a positive change in children’s lives.

Across HBG and Hachette UK, more than 12 million books now include a message about the reading crisis and the importance of encouraging a child’s lifelong love of reading. By the end of 2026, this number is expected to grow to more than 25 million books across more than 3,000 works.

Hachette urges all to visit the Raising Readers website, JoinRaisingReaders.com, and sign the pledge to spend 10 minutes a day reading to or with a child and to access resources to help the next generation become lifelong readers.

To watch the Raising Readers PSA, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StM7ZtU-_dw

To find a downloadable Raising Readers toolkit, please see here.

About Hachette Book Group:

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group, Grand Central Publishing Group, Hachette Audio, Little, Brown and Company, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit, Workman Publishing, and Running Press Group. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to several publishing companies.

Our books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Prize, James Beard Award, and other major honors.

We are committed to diversity in our company and our publishing programs, and to fostering a culture of inclusion for all our employees and authors. We are proud to be part of Hachette Livre, the world’s third-largest trade and educational publisher.

Visit hachettebookgroup.com to learn more about HBG imprints. For updated news follow HBG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X.com, Snapchat, and YouTube.