Don't force children to read classics

Parents run the risk of putting children off reading by forcing them to read literary classics.

Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider books, said, "Reading is not an issue we should keep banging children over the head with. As children, my generation were given the books that our parents read. Now children can discover their own writers. There have never been so many good living young writers."

He was speaking at the launch of the Starbucks Bookdrive, a campaign run in partnershop with the National Literacy Trust to promote reading by encouraging donations to school libraries.

He also suggested that the best way that parents could encourage a child to read was to set aside 15 minutes a day to read to them. "We are all so busy as adults that we tend to forget the inestimable value of spending 15 minutes a day reading with our child. There is no better way to get to know your child than to share their books with them."