The Heart In The Bottle

“Once there was a girl much like any other whose head was filled with all the curiosities of the world. With thoughts of the stars, with wonder at the seas. She took delight in finding new things until the day she found an empty chair. Feeling unsure, the girl thought the best thing was to put her heart in a safe place. Just for the time being. So she put it in a bottle and hung it round her neck.”

Oliver Jeffers’s beautiful, heartbreaking story of a child coming to terms with the death of her grandfather captures and communicates the power of deep and complex emotions with the minimum of text and the sparest illustration. Research shows that literature of this quality offers opportunities for young readers to gain insight into fictional characters' perspectives, lives, and experiences, and in doing so, has the potential to support their empathy and self-knowledge.

A report published this week by the UKLA (United Kingdom Literacy Association) explores the way that fiction can support children and young people in the development of empathy skills. It distinguishes between affective and cognitive empathy noting that the latter, “reflects the ability to engage with and adopt others' perspectives and infer their mental and emotional states.”

At a time when anxiety and mental ill-health are at an all-time high in this age group, recognising and harnessing the power of great books, not just to entertain but to support the development of self-knowledge and empathy, is an even more pressing priority for the nation’s educators- parents and teachers alike.

At the same time, the National Literacy Trust’s annual survey finds that reading for pleasure is at an all-time low in this age group. Only 1 in every three 8-18 year-olds said they enjoyed reading in their spare time. The UKLA research on empathy and reading concludes that at least part of the problem is the school curriculum. They note the importance of adolescents having access to, and being encouraged to read, fiction books that reflect their interests, lives, experiences and purposes for reading, rather than solely ‘literary’ texts, which are often compulsory reading in high school classrooms.

Teachers up and down the country will recognise the simple truths revealed in these studies. They experience the daily challenge of helping children and young people manage difficult emotions. A recurring theme in the ongoing struggle to meet those needs is not the lack of knowledge or professional understanding, it’s institutional barriers such as inflexible and outmoded curricula.

There are many benefits to nurturing a love of reading in a child's free time. It is a tangible way to equip children with the reading skills they need to thrive in school and beyond, as well as empower them with the chance to discover new things, both about the world around them and people and cultures they may not yet know.