Why Some Kids Love Reading and Others Don’t

It’s one of the great, baffling mysteries of parenting. You raise your children in the exact same house. You read them the exact same bedtime stories. You have shelves bursting with the same beautiful picture books.

Yet, by the time they hit third or fourth grade, you have two completely different creatures on your hands.

Child A stays up until 11:00 PM with a flashlight under the covers, completely lost in a fantasy realm. Child B acts like you’ve asked them to scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush when you suggest 15 minutes of reading time.

If you have a Child B, you’ve probably spent late nights Googling, “How to make my kid like reading,” while battling a heavy dose of parent guilt. You might wonder what you did wrong, or if your child is missing some crucial "bookworm gene."

Take a deep breath. You didn't do anything wrong. The divide between kids who love reading and kids who avoid it usually comes down to a few invisible hurdles. Let’s break down exactly why some kids push back against books—and how you can gently change the narrative.