The Year of Reading Campaign

Reading in a pupil’s home language is a powerful part of this journey. It develops bilingual skills, deepens comprehension, and nurtures a genuine love of stories. Bilingual books also honour pupils’ full linguistic identities and help them access English more confidently.

EAL learners are often strong decoders, but it’s reading for meaning and pleasure that truly transforms progress. Offering a rich mix of texts—magazines, comics, recipes, dual-language books and more—helps every young reader find something that inspires them.

Make 2026 a year full of stories, voices, and possibilities.

Global Storybooks Portal | Literacy for all - A free multilingual literacy resource for language teachers and learners of all ages. Read, teach, download, and listen to illustrated stories in many languages.

WorldStories - A growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children.

Free Children's Books - Stories, ebooks, textbooks, and much more - Children books for free download or read online, stories and textbooks and more, for entertainment, education, ESL, and literacy.

Magazine zone | LearnEnglish - The articles are written for intermediate and upper intermediate learners. Improve reading comprehension and develop vocabulary on a diverse range of international events, celebrations and topics.