Can reading books make kids smarter and more connected? In her article for Time magazine, Annie Murphy Paul argues that it can. She discovered evidence that “individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective” (Paul, 2013). Cognitive psychologists observed a similar result in young children: the more stories they had read to them, the better they understood themselves and others (Mar et al., 2006; Mar et al., 2009; Mar et al., 2010).

As a teacher, I have seen firsthand how books offer children vicarious friendships with individuals they would never otherwise encounter. They allow for travel to destinations far and wide. Stories show students how others have dealt with challenges similar to their own. In myriad ways, literature teaches us that we are not alone.

Our youngsters are in desperate need of the connections that books can provide. As highlighted in a recent article by The New York Times Magazine, young people are currently facing a significant mental health crisis. Jia Lynn Yang reports that nearly 32% of adolescents have been diagnosed with anxiety at some point in their lives, with a median age of onset of just six years old, and that more than one in ten adolescents have experienced a major depressive disorder (Avenevoli, 2015; Yang, 2025). Amid these challenges, many young people feel disconnected and uncertain about where they belong, making opportunities for connection, reflection, and shared meaning more important than ever. 

Teachers across the country are reporting that their students are disaffected, disengaged from school, barely putting in seat time, and stuck in neutral. This may be a continuation of habits formed during the pandemic and/or a result of too much screen time, but the moment for excuses is past. We need to help students rediscover their learning gear. 

3 Strategies to Foster Learning & Belonging Through Stories 

In my experience, children shift from neutral to drive when they are interested in a topic. And exposing them to a broad range of issues, people, and places through books widens their circle of interest. Consider nonfiction titles along with fiction. For example, Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle’s Incredible Journey Home by Lindsay Moore. This is the true story of a loggerhead sea turtle who was rescued by oceanographers after an injury to her shell. After a long career at an aquarium, Yoshi was released back into the wild with a tracker attached. Yoshi traveled over 25,000 miles in 1,003 days in order to find her way back home.

Yoshi knew in her bones where she belonged.

Along with being an inspirational story of determination and perseverance, the book provides detailed information about the ocean, currents, food chain, and geography, providing a host of entry points for inquiry that children are keen to pursue. 

Here are three strategies to foster this kind of engagement:

Include both fiction and nonfiction books in your classroom library: offering both expands students’ sense of what reading can be. Fiction encourages empathy and perspective-taking, while nonfiction invites curiosity about the real world and allows students to see their interests, identities, and questions reflected and valued.

Introduce students to fresh titles through an engaging read-aloud: Read-alouds lower the barrier to entry, especially for disengaged or reluctant readers. When students are invited into a story together, reading becomes a shared experience rather than a solitary task that sparks curiosity, discussion, and emotional connection.

Invite generous conversations about what it means to belong and how it feels when one feels left out: Creating space for these conversations requires more than good intentions. It requires shared language and structures that help students listen, reflect, and connect. Programs like Harmony Academy support educators in turning literature into moments of connection by offering Storybooks and Literature Guide with discussion and reflection prompts, as well as Everyday Practices that help students explore belonging together.

When books open doors to new worlds, and classrooms offer space to reflect and connect — as they do through approaches like Harmony — students are reminded that learning is not something they do alone.

Maybe instead of trying to meet today’s students where they are, let’s show them how books can take them to places where they have never been. Reading may help our children become smarter and happier by fostering a sense of belonging within their peer groups, families, and school communities.

About Carol Jago

She has taught for over 30 years and serves as associate director of the California Reading and Literature at UCLA. She is a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English and received the Squire Award, honoring an individual who has had a transforming influence and has made a lasting intellectual contribution to the profession. 

References

Avenevoli, S., Swendsen, J., He, J. P., Burstein, M., & Merikangas, K. R. (2015). Major depression in the national comorbidity survey-adolescent supplement: prevalence, correlates, and treatment. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 37–44.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2014.10.010

Mar, R. A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J., & Peterson, J. B. (2006). Bookworms versus nerds: Exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional social worlds. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(5), 694–712. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.002

Mar, R., Oatley, K. & Peterson, J. (2009). Exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy: Ruling out individual differences and examining outcomes. Communications, 34(4), 407-428. https://doi.org/10.1515/COMM.2009.025

Mar, R. A., Tackett, J. L., & Moore, C. (2010). Exposure to media and theory-of-mind development in preschoolers. Cognitive Development, 25(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.11.002

Moore, L. (2022). Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle’s Incredible Journey Home. Greenwillow Books.

Paul, A. M. (2013, June 3). Reading literature makes us smarter and nicer. TIME Ideas. https://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/ ideas.time.com

Yang, J. L. (2025, November 24). Youth mental-health crisis in schools. The New York Times Magazine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/magazine/youth-mental-health-crisis-schools.html