Do you agree with Horowitz? Or do you enjoy long books?
Polls
27th May 2025
A best-selling author thinks that children don’t want to read big books any more, because of social media.
Anthony Horowitz (above), the author of the Alex Rider teenage spy series, reckons kids’ minds are being “rewired” by smartphones, and that they no longer have the attention spans for long stories.
He told the BBC’s Headliners podcast that he doubts his 300-page novels would be successful if they were released today, and that he isn’t planning to write any more of them.
He thinks that the most popular kids’ books now have bright colours and are very short, with lots of pictures – and that’s okay, because they give children pleasure. However, he explained: “It’s not what I write.”
What about you?
2 Comments
lig · 2 months ago
What?!! I like his books and I love reading long books, and I don't usually read books with bright colours and lots of pictures either.
kb1. · 1 month ago
Same, I read his books of legends and myths book. Keep the work going! I tend to read chapter books but sometimes out of curiosity I feel I'd want to read a simple book (when I am tedious). So I agree that people are now glued to their phones or devices maybe there should be a book fair -like you might have at school but bigger like in London. It would be great for world book day, or for people who say devices DO NOT distract them ask AI to generate a story just put it in 3 words e.g. magical, eerie, scary and in 5s you'll have a story. Thank you!