This month The National Year of Reading 2026 is focusing on the powerful relationship between reading and mental wellbeing.
As well as actively supporting their campaign to get children and adults reading, in our Reading Fairy classes we’re creating an environment that’s centred around making early reading fun and emphasising the positive power of stories.
The National Literacy’s Trust’s latest research, which explores children and young people's reading in 2025, revealed that over half of children and young people aged 8 to 18 who enjoy reading said that they read because it relaxed them, and around 2 in 5 read because it made them feel happy.
Their campaign also highlights a University of Sussex study that found that as little as six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68% outperforming other relaxation activities such as listening to music (61%) and and walking (42%) along with a report by academics at the University of Cambridge ‘Reading for Pleasure - and for Better Health’. Their work references a study by Professor Sahakian, Dr Langley and colleagues of more than 10,000 young people, which found that children who began reading for pleasure early in life showed benefits including : better attention, memory, and executive functioning, greater academic achievement, fewer mental health problems, and healthier lifestyles, including more sleep and less screen time.
How to get involved:
•Go All In! The National Year of Reading website features some great resources for families looking to incorporate more reading times into their daily lives and there are some fun ways to take part in their campaign this month (October 2026).
•Join their World Record Attempt! On Thursday 8th of October, the National Literacy Trust and the British Council will aim to set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the most people reading online in 12 hours.
The record attempt is part of the Take 10 to Read campaign in the National Year of Reading 2026 - and the message is simple: whatever you're into, take 10 to read into it.
To find out more or to take part, click here.
• Take 10 for Mental Health Each year, on 10th of October for World Mental Health Day, the National Literacy Trust call on the nation to #Take10toRead.
Take 10 to Read is a reading for pleasure campaign to promote the wellbeing benefits of reading.
On 10th October at 10am, they’re asking you to ‘drop everything and read’ for just ten minutes to feel the wellbeing benefits. It could be a book, poem, magazine, or audiobook – whatever joyful reading looks like to you!
•Join your local Ready Fairy class
Not only do we read together in every session, we also have some very special plans around sharing stories far and wide with our friends and communities as part of the National Year of Reading.
You can find your local class here.