Literacy is at the heart of all social concerns. So what are children to learn about reading and writing? What counts as literacy now, and what will it be like in the lives of those who leave school in the next century? This book shows how young learners become strong, confident readers if they discover early what reading and writing are good for.

Literacy is at the heart of all social concerns. Not only in childhood in education in Britain but everywhere in the modern world of signs print and information literacy is linked to changes especially in all forms of communication. So what are children to learn about reading and writing? What counts as literacy now and what will it be like in the lives of those who leave school in the next century? In this book Margaret Meek shows how young learners become strong confident readers if they discover early what reading and writing are good for as powerful ways of learning and 'being in the know.' Literacy will change but it is still the entitlement of everyone.