MY CHILDREN are strange.

Not in a teenage-brain-different-planet-honestly-what-are-they-talking-about kind of way, although that does crop up every now and again.

No, according to research by the National Literacy Trust revealed at the weekend, my two sons, who regularly risk head injury by reading while walking around the house, are definitely at odds with most of their peers.

The charity’s survey, published by The Observer newspaper in the run up to World Book Day on Thursday, revealed that children today read less frequently than any previous generation and enjoy reading less than young people did in the past.

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In 2019 just 26 per cent of under-18s spent some time each day reading, the lowest daily level recorded since the Trust first surveyed children’s reading habits in 2005. Overall, just over half – 53 percent - of children said they enjoyed reading “very much” or “quite a lot” – the lowest level since 2013.

I think that is very sad, and when you consider how reading can boost literacy and language skills, not to mention mental health, it is alarming, too.

I have always been a bookworm. I love the word, though when I was a child, it was often levelled at me as an insult.

“Look at her, the little bookworm, always got her nose stuck in a book,” various adults would proclaim, wrinkling their noses in disdain. I didn’t care. Just kept reading.

A teacher at high school, who seemed irked to find me reading at interval, barked: “All that reading isn’t good for your eyesight, you know. You’ll be wearing glasses by the time you’re 50.”

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I remember feeling a bit bemused by this train of thought, that reading books was somehow a Bad Thing To Do - but only briefly, before I disappeared back into whatever Nancy Drew/Alan Garner/Judy Blume book was keeping me occupied at the time.

Rearing two little and now not-so-little bookworms has been fun.

In a world of wall-to-wall Stampy videos and Tik Tok mania, the boys will often choose reading over watching.

They read at the breakfast table, before bed, and, dangerously, walking from room to room, if it’s “a really good bit”.

They will settle down in book shop corners, prompting many knowing smiles and nods from fellow shoppers. “So lovely to see young boys reading,” they will coo. “So strange in this day and age.”

Strange, but cool. Bookworms unite!