I recently had the opportunity to attend EMC’s English and Inclusion conference, where Teresa Cremin, the keynote speaker, spoke about the National Literacy Trust’s ‘Children and young people’s reading in 2025’ study, which looked at reading trends across the UK.
In keeping with the downward trend of the last decade, the 2025 report shows that fewer children nationwide are reading for pleasure or reading at all. Beyond that, fewer adults report they enjoy reading for pleasure, decreasing the likelihood that young children will have good role models when it comes to voluntary reading.
With new technology and social media so deeply integrated into our lives, it is harder than ever to convince young people that reading can be a fun and enriching use of their time. So, how do teachers promote a culture of literacy and get students to buy in?
The answer comes from looking at what spaces that promote engagement in literature are already succeeding. These days, you don’t have to go far to see the word ‘BookTok’ popping up near anything bookish. Many bookstores, both independent and chain, have special tables set up for books popular on the TikTok platform.
BookTok creates an inclusive, low-stakes space for teenagers and adults to come together and discuss the literature they like to consume. Because there is no grading, and all feedback comes as part of an extended conversation, the environment is much more conducive to casual or hesitant readers, who might be nervous about participating in activities with ‘cannon’ texts in school.
This all relates back to the current problems surrounding children’s reading for pleasure. There are still a handful of students who truly immerse themselves in reading, willing and enthusiastic participants, even when addressing classic literature like Shakespeare or Dickens. These kinds of readers will likely continue to exist, but for many students, the gap in shared experiences leaves them bored with the book and looking for another form of entertainment.
Part of what makes BookTok so compelling for young people is the emphasis it places on ‘romantacy,’ a portmanteau of the ‘romance’ and ‘fantasy’ genres. These books are often YA genre books that use common tropes or formulas to engage with readers.
Young readers who enjoy the ‘romantacy’ niche can use BookTok as a form of personalized search engine to direct them towards literature that contains similar undertones. This can also allow readers to find natural segues from genre to genre, helping to broaden reading skills. For example, Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles is a retelling of the classic Greek myth of the Trojan war. Song of Achilles, blew up on BookTok during 2021, and remains a popular title, as well as one of my personal favorite recommendations to ever come from the online community.
Retellings like Miller’s act as introductions to different areas of classic literature. Students may find the LGBTQ romance Miller portrays between Achilles and Patroclus extremely compelling, and it could serve as a gateway into further exploration of traditional Greek mythology. (A similar phenomenon has occurred due to the massive success of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, which received attention on par with that of Harry Potter or The Hunger Games.)
Kids today are just as interested in and capable of understanding layering and nuance in classic literature, but often lack a connection from older texts to their own lives. Kids who might get bored reading Jane Austen’s Emma are often the same ones who are captivated by the movie Clueless, the 1995 romcom version of Austen’s classic. Olivie Blake’s book, One For My Enemy, another BookTok darling, is another great example of a retelling of a classic story, transporting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the present day and including magic and an underground mafia. The language and conventions of modern Manhattan help ground readers and allow them to focus on the tragedy itself.
Not every piece of older literature will have a modern version, and it would be difficult to include other interpretations with every lesson, but using these resources to augment student’s understanding of a text can also bolster their confidence as readers by showing them that these types of stories are accessible to them. By buying into the BookTok formula that reading these modern YA books ought to be encouraged, teachers can start to turn non-readers into frequent readers.
Like remakes, retellings, and representations of classic tales, BookTok’s unassuming brilliance comes from its accessibility. Having an open space for genuine interaction with all kinds of text is rare, even, or sometimes especially, in a classroom setting, where teachers often face pressure to ‘teach to the test.’ By incorporating ideas and content from BookTok into classes, students can be exposed to a literary community that can encourage them to engage in reading for pleasure.
What BookTok in the classroom looks like will vary from school to school. For some, it may be choosing to include a handful of BookTok recommended content into the curriculum. It could be having a special shelf or section in classroom libraries, or even having a classroom BookTok account where students can showcase and rate the books that they are reading.
Another aspect of BookTok includes skits involving book characters. These skits are often meant to be funny or highlight an aspect of the plot that was important. Although it is easy to dismiss this as childish or silly, the ability to produce creative content using a piece of literature as a template is exactly the kind of close-reading skills teachers want to instill in their students. Creating activities in the classroom where students use popular TikTok audios or skit set-ups, teachers can foster the skills necessary for students to identify important themes and plots.
Some teachers and parents may be concerned their children are not reading the literary canon, but fun YA novels and themes about friendship, loyalty, trust, and other important topics aren’t mutually exclusive. If promoting BookTok is what it takes to get kids reading, we should embrace the platform wholeheartedly and use it as a tool to introduce students to new ideas about the world around them.
