Swallows and Amazons Forever: How Adults and Children Engage in Reading a Classic Text

This qualitative case study explores the nature of reading engagement, taking a reader response approach to analysing and discussing the experiences and perspectives of real readers. The paper reports a collaborative research project in which a group of five primary-age children and a group of five adults of different ages were asked to read and respond to Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. Rather than offering separate models of reading for children and adults, the study focuses on common responses and practices across time and generations. Transcripts of group discussions and individual interviews along with written memories and accounts are examined to generate themes that illuminate the processes of engagement used in reading, or rereading, the novel. Whilst some of these responses demonstrate an active pleasure in reading, there is also evidence that most readers encountered difficulties with Ransome’s text. It is suggested that engagement with a text like Swallows and Amazons relies on three dimensions reflecting a situated reading event: reader identity, immersion, and resilience