Plenty of parents have been there. Your child says they “hate reading” and you are left wondering what went wrong. The truth is, most kids do not actually hate books. What they dislike is feeling frustrated, bored, or pressured when reading.

Often, the issue comes down to difficulty. If a child keeps getting books that are too hard, reading feels like failure instead of fun. Imagine being asked to run a marathon before you have the breathing power to jog around the block. Avoiding it starts to make sense.

Other times, kids are simply not interested in the story that is put in front of them. A child who loves dinosaurs is not going to get excited about summer camp drama, and a hands-on learner will tune out when faced with page after page of text without interaction. The book has to fit the child, not just the reading level.

Pressure can also turn kids off fast. When every reading time feels like a quiz with constant questions about sounds, words, or comprehension, books stop being enjoyable. Even children who read well often lose interest when reading becomes more about performance than pleasure.

Sometimes there are physical or processing challenges making reading harder. Vision issues, eye strain, or differences in how kids connect sounds to letters can create extra barriers. Without support, those struggles can quickly become frustration.

So how do you help? Start by removing the pressure. Let kids choose what truly interests them, even if the books seem too easy or too repetitive. If your child wants to read twenty books about trucks, that still builds confidence and fluency. Read aloud together, create inviting spaces for reading, and let them see you enjoying your own books.

We were in our fifties, when a grade school classmate told me that he had always avoided reading because he hated it. Then one day, when he was in his early twenties, he read a Louis L’Amour western. He was hooked from then on. After he read all the Louis L’Amour books he could find, he started on other western authors and from there he spread out to other genres. Now in his 70s, he’s been an avid reader since that first western, more than 50 years ago.

The love of reading takes time to grow. When kids feel safe, interested, and unpressured, they are far more likely to pick up a book for fun. That moment is where lifelong readers begin.