Explores adolescent use of the media for leisure and, in particular, adolescent leisure reading of books. Surveys adolescents to measure the popularity of leisure reading compared to other leisure options, with a view toward contrasting female and male leisure reading pursuits. Finds that reading is popular with adolescents and that females favor…

Reviews the research on personal and professional reading habits of teachers and education students. Examines the reading goals of 62 undergraduate and 62 graduate students in reading-related classes. Finds a need for change in developing the reading habits of education students for them to instill positive reading attitudes in children. (MG)

Examines the reading interests of middle school students as revealed through student-written annotations of books read during the school year. Finds a wide range of reading interests, with 63 percent of the titles annotated only once. Discusses characteristics of the 20 most popular books. (RS)

Contains eight citations from the ERIC database that offer suggestions about ways teachers and librarians can use the library to help students learn and ways to motivate children to use the library and read. (MG)

Reports on the findings of a survey of over 450 children (ages 7 through 9) in southwest England exploring aspects of their views about and experience of reading. Provides insight into what children read and what influences their choice of reading and response to reading. (HB)

Presents data from a study of middle school library circulation of biography titles in two school years. Analyzes circulation counts, periods when biographies were checked out, favored subjects, and popular titles. (HB)

Argues that nonfiction is growing in popularity as reading material among adolescents. Provides data and analysis of a study designed to measure the influence of nonfiction on the attitudes, values, and behavior of adolescents. (HB)

The impact of interestingness and "narrativity" on comprehension, attention, and reading speed and the role of topic familiarity were studied for 16 college students in psychology classes and 8 from engineering classes who read excerpts from psychology and engineering texts. Results support schema-based comprehension theory. (SLD)

Finds and describes five text characteristics that are most positively associated with interest in expository text, and three most negatively associated. Shows that interest and importance were highly correlated, and that information rated as both interesting and important was recalled best. (SR)

Discussion of Web sites that are related to books and reading and would be of interest to library patrons focuses on 10 sites, including publisher's sites, book reviews, mysteries, children's literature, the Library of Congress's Center for the Book, and relevant e-mail newsletters. (LRW)

Describes the "quick book share," an activity used by a seventh-grade reading and language arts teacher, in which students in small groups share with each other their passion for a particular book, thus getting recommendations from each other, and letting the teacher know what books are being read in the reading workshop. (SR)

Argues against using literature with high school students that is relentlessly dark, depressing, and self absorbed, which English instructors often find Deeply Significant, and which many students find repulsive. Argues that what many young readers want now is a literature of hope. Recommends 20 such books. Offers brief descriptions of 10 new or…

Describes ways middle school teachers can engage in "asset building" within the context of regular classroom instruction. Highlights using interest inventories to determine students' interests and needs, and then developing a Book Club to introduce quality literature on these topics of interest. (JPB)

Finds that the 35 middle-school language-arts teachers studied agreed that Self Selected Reading (SSR) is an important way to improve students' reading attitudes and achievement, but that their schools rarely provided funds for buying student-preferred materials, and that finding time for SSR was difficult because of the pressure to prepare for…

Presents evidence from the W. H. Smith Children's Reading Choices Project research in order to examine the relationship between achievement in English and the reading habits of 10- to 14-year-old children. Argues for the importance of recognizing and respecting the range of reading children engage in, and the popular reading cultures in which they…