A Year 7 student stands at a book fair, yellow World Book Day token in hand, faced with a problem no one warned them about: there are too many good options.

It's a small scene. But it sits in sharper relief against a national backdrop that's harder to ignore.

New research from the National Literacy Trust shows reading enjoyment among 8 to 18-year-olds has fallen by nearly 19 percent over two decades. Fewer than one in three young people now say they enjoy reading.

This week, during Reading School's Book Festival, the Learning Resource Centre published its own survey data. Four hundred and six students responded. Two in three reported enjoying reading - double the national figure. Nearly one in three read daily.

The most popular genres were action, adventure, crime, mystery and fantasy. The most popular non-fiction subject: sport. These are the reading habits of students who have found books that appeal to them, in a library that 72 percent say they enjoy using, stocked with titles that 95 percent feel reflect their actual interests.

That doesn't happen by accident. It is the result of consistent, quiet work by the people who run it.

The Book Festival continues this week. Year 7s and 8s have already been at the Scholastic Book Fair, open to everyone at break and lunchtime, and have been set an early task: to research the authors who will soon be visiting the School, getting to know the voices behind the books before they're in the same room as them.

World Book Day follows on 5 March. Author talks begin 9 March, with bestselling authors Sue Wallman, M. G. Leonard, Sarah Govett and Alex Hibbert among those visiting.

Research is consistent that reading for pleasure makes a measurable difference – to confidence, to writing, to how students think. The harder question has always been how you make that happen at scale, for the whole school community, year after year.

The LRC's data suggests Reading School has a working answer.