What last year’s trends tell us about today’s students

Every school year brings a new set of questions for educators. 

How can students be encouraged to read more? What formats or genres keep them engaged? And in an era when conversations around screen time dominate headlines, where does digital reading fit into the bigger picture? 

This year's Sora Annual Report offers an interesting perspective. Drawing on anonymized reading activity from more than 4.7 million students worldwide, the report doesn't just reveal what students are reading -- it provides a window into how students are discovering books, the formats they prefer, the tools they use to deepen comprehension, and the habits they're building as readers both inside and outside of the classroom. 

While every school community has different needs, several notable themes emerged that can help all educators, librarians, and school leaders think strategically about literacy in the year ahead. 

Students aren't abandoning books, they're embracing multiple ways to read 

For another year, ebooks remained students' preferred digital reading format, accounting for 85% of all worldwide Sora checkouts. Audiobooks represented 11%, continuing their steady growth, while magazines maintained a smaller but consistent share. 

Rather than viewing these formats as competing options, it's more useful to think of them as complementary tools within a school's literacy ecosystem. A student may listen to an audiobook on the bus ride home, continue reading the ebook during independent reading time, and return to the story later that evening. Others may choose audiobooks as an accessibility support or as a way to build reading confidence and stamina. 

For educators, the takeaway isn't that one format is replacing another; it's that today's students expect flexibility. Providing multiple pathways into reading helps meet learners where they are, teaching them additional skillsets such as listening comprehension and enhancing their overall vocabulary. 

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Reading is becoming a more active experience 

Reading isn't simply about opening a book anymore. Increasingly, students are interacting with texts in ways that deepen comprehension and encourage curiosity. 

During the 2024–2025 school year, students logged 349.6 million reading sessions, averaging 2.5 million hours of reading each month. Beyond reading itself, many students used built-in features like dictionary lookups, annotations, reading goals, and achievements to personalize their experience. 

One of the more revealing data points comes from the platform's most frequently defined vocabulary words. Terms like incredulous, trepidation, consternation, and mollified suggest students weren't simply skimming text—they were pausing to investigate unfamiliar vocabulary as they read. 

These moments of curiosity are difficult to measure in a traditional classroom, but they offer a glimpse into how students are actively making meaning while reading independently. 

Student choice continues to be a powerful driver of engagement 

If there's one theme that appears throughout this year's report, it's the importance of giving students meaningful choices. 

The year's most-read titles included everything from graphic novels and popular series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Heartstopper to classroom staples such as The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. 

The same pattern appears across genres. Graphic novels remained among the most popular categories for elementary, middle, and high school readers, while fantasy, historical fiction, biography, and classic literature all maintained strong interest. 

For educators, this reinforces something many have observed firsthand: independent reading and curriculum-based reading don't have to compete with one another. In fact, they can reinforce each other. 

Personalization is becoming an expectation—not a bonus 

Today's students are accustomed to experiences that adapt to their needs, and reading is no exception. 

This year, more than 628,000 students used Sora's Reading Goals feature, with most selecting the platform's default goal of 20 minutes of daily reading. Since Sora launched, millions of students have also earned reading achievements as they build consistent reading habits. 

The report also highlights features that help support a broad range of learners, including adjustable text settings, text-to-speech, built-in dictionaries, annotations, multilingual collections, and the ability for students to read privately at an appropriate level. 

These aren't simply convenience features—they reflect a shift toward creating personalized reading experiences that acknowledge students' diverse needs, preferences, and abilities. 

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Looking ahead 

Taken together, this year's findings point to a simple but important conclusion: students are still reading, but they're doing so in increasingly flexible and personalized ways. 

They move between formats. They choose books that reflect their interests while continuing to engage with classroom texts. They use digital tools to define unfamiliar words, set goals, and stay motivated. And when schools provide access to diverse collections and multiple ways to engage with text, students take advantage of those opportunities. 

For school and district leaders, these trends reinforce the importance of investing in literacy resources that prioritize access, choice, and engagement. For educators and librarians, they offer another reminder that fostering a culture of reading isn't about promoting a single format or title—it's about creating an environment where every student can find a path into reading. 

As schools continue to strengthen literacy initiatives, the question may no longer be whether students will embrace digital reading. The more important question is how schools can continue to use digital reading strategically to expand access, support diverse learners, and inspire students to read more often—and more deeply.