The Simply Stories team is passionate about pleasure reading and here’s why.

A range of large-scale studies continue to find highly positive associations between pleasure reading – extracurricular reading for gist – and the comprehension and fluency that mark higher-level reading. Reading fiction in particular draws on readers’ experiences, expectations, and inferencing abilities to lay foundations for literacy that goes beyond so-called functional literacy to develop critical literacy (Cardiff et al. 2007; Duncan 2014; Friere 1970; Graff 1993). It turns out that pleasure reading – again, particularly of fiction with its engaging narratives – boosts the intake of the linguistic aspects of texts such as morphosyntax and vocabulary (Coady 1997; Bamford & Day 2004; Day & Bamford 1988; Grabe 2009; Lee 2009). These benefits hold not only for younger but also older educated individuals reading in their native or a second language, and at all levels. This includes motivation to read more (Bamford & Day 2004; Clarke 2013; Coady 1997; Horst 2005; Krashen 1989; 2004; Pigada & Schmitt 2006). A handful of studies on lower-level immigrant adults in the UK and USA show the same benefits (Constantino 1995; Laymon 2012; 2013; Rodrigo et al. 2007; Williamson 2013; Yaden et al. 2003).

Importantly, pleasure reading involves individual choice – of where, how and what to read. Readers require books which capture their interest and which they can read in accordance with their reading level and linguistic competence (Anderson et al. 1987; Crossley et al. 2012; Hill 2008; Jose & Brewer 1984; Moses 2000; Ryan & Deci 2000; White 2007; Williams 1986). We discovered that there are few simple yet engaging books written expressly for adults (Young-Scholten & Wilkinson 2011; Young-Scholten & Maguire 2009). How many books do we need? For starters, we considered the study by Rodrigo et al. (2007) where 249 were made available. The study noted the preferences of the 43 students involved: fiction, followed by biography. This was one of the studies that guided our development of Simply Stories over the decades.