NO two children are alike and that certainly seems to be the case with reading.

Since being involved in the reading campaign, I have been told again and again that the way to get a child enthused about reading is to find the right way in – whether that be through story, pictures, format or connection with other media.

All those things appeared to play a part for Sam when it comes to reading.

The theme for this week was talking about favourite kinds of books or texts and what we liked about them and why.

After the long bank holiday weekend, bringing in his favourite book slipped Sam’s mind – but he had plenty to say about what he liked and why.

After a story from mum or dad, it is a Star Wars comic that Sam tucks up in bed with.

He likes them because he knows the characters and he finds the stories exciting.

While Sam confided it was the pictures he liked, he had plenty to tell me about rich, detailed imaginative worlds – so clearly those colourful pictures and gripping stories had got him reading.

We picked two books to go through and it is a testament to how popular the books used for the reading intervention scheme, Project X Code, are that he picked one of the texts to read with me, along with Mini Grey’s Traction Man.

With Traction Man, Sam was engrossed in the story, amused by the detailed character pictures and the way everyday household objects came to life.

Again, both an interesting story and attractive images were bringing it to life for him. But while he enthusiastically read the speech bubbles and shouted out Traction Man whenever his name appeared, he relied on me to read the bulk of the book.

Not so with the Project X Code book.

Already engaging with the story, he told me about how the scheme worked, pointed out the characters and explained which was his favourite, before reading every single word.

There were a few stumbles, but I was impressed that, for example, when I helped him with the long “ee” sound on one page, he remembered it when he encountered it again.

It just shows how important practice like this can be – and what sponges young minds are when provided with the right incentive.

In this case, Sam was so keen to find out what happened in the story, he HAD to read the words and he figured out, or remembered, how to do so.

He left the session telling me about a series of books he enjoyed that he planned to bring in to show me. I can’t wait.