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AS reports highlight the difficulty of problem children in the classroom, making sure the environment outside school is conducive to learning has never been so important.
Key to this is encouraging the next generation to love reading, so that literacy skills are not seen as a chore but a hobby.
American author James Patterson should be praised for his generous donation to independent bookstores in the county. It will attract more young people into bookshops and foster a new group of bookworms.
His actions echo the Oxford Mail’s reading campaign, which has seen 1,200 pupils take part in the project to get kids lost in books.
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