School of Education

Reading with Children

Reading with Children: Early years picturebook play across libraries, museums, and outdoor spaces.

The Reading with Children project investigates multiiteracies practices of reading picturebooks playfully with early years children. Combining cultural institution settings such as libraries, playgrounds, and museums, the project examines the potential of picturebooks to support under-5s development of place-based and multimodal literacies. 

In partnership with the University of Glasgow Nursery, the project team have been working with 3-5 year olds since 2022. We have read stories every Friday with over 80 children. Postgraduate students take part in the reading sessions, developing essential communication skills and gaining experience in working with children.

The project has had profound implications for both the children and adult readers involved, having developed and extended understandings of intergenerational picturebook sharing practices through a playful literacies framework. The project has found across the years of reading sessions, that bringing both children and adults together through reading builds joyful community, a sense of belonging and picturebook literacies for all. 

Further background

Since the project began, more than 40 PhD and MSc students have taken part in the project. An annual exhibition is held each year at the School of Education, University of Glasgow, to celebrate the work of the project, where the children and students' work is showcased for family, friends and colleagues. Recently, the project has been awarded the 2026 Scottish Book Trust Reading Champion Award. 

Some of the project team take a break from reading.

The project team have presented their work at several national and international conferences and have developed training materials for nursery practitioners, parents and carers to use for reading aloud in museum, outdoor, and library settings. 

BookPals Storytelling Guide Series: 2026 - Museums

The team have delivered several training inititatives, including a Scottish Book Trust online professional learning session, Championing Reading for Pleasure: Practice, Impact, and Possibility seminar and have supported a training placement with Glasgow Life.