You're listening to a more or less podcast from the BBC. For more information about the program,

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Hello and welcome to more or less, the program that takes a closer look at the numbers in the news

and in life. Today we'll explain how all supermarkets can claim to be cheaper than each other

at the same time without being slapped down for false advertising. And once you've done your

weekly shop and got busy in the kitchen, what are the odds of cracking four double-yoke tags

one after another? We continue to scrutinise the enormous numbers emerging from the Eurozone crisis.

Do Italian taxpayers really pay two billion euros a year for their politicians to be showered around?

But first, the National Literacy Trust said this week that one in three children doesn't own a book.

Listen to Helen from Nottingham wasn't convinced. I heard the National Literacy research

that says that now one in three children don't own a book and in 2005 it was one in ten children.

Well this seems quite shocking but I wondered what actually is going on. Does it matter if you don't

own a book? How significant is that for your reading? If you also heard the news this week that a

third of children don't own books, you might have pictured little children who have no

opportunities to get into reading because they have no books at home. But on closer reading,

this report isn't talking about little children. The research mainly surveyed children of secondary

school age. And what about the reading skills of children who don't own books? The reports

finding show that if you have books you are more likely to be good at reading. But if the children

who are identified as reading above the level expected for their age, still 25% said they didn't

own books. And while a third of children said they didn't personally own a book, only 3%

of children said they lived in houses with no books. Once more, although the survey suggests

things are getting worse, it's actually the younger children who are more likely to own books.

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