Discusses the difficulties connected with preparing students to read "the classics" for pleasure. (EL)

Concludes that teachers' perceptions of reading enthusiasm do not always match those of young students, and many times may be based simply on reading achievement. Suggests that reading attitude and achievement may be two separate entities in the early stages of learning to read and that they should perhaps be treated as such by reading educators.…

Presents the annual list of reading choices of approximately 350 tenth through twelfth graders from among newly published books. Shows that the most popular category for reading was contemporary realism. (EL)

Discusses the effects of the grading standards of the National Criteria on Reading and stresses the importance of teaching children to enjoy reading and to appreciate literature. (DF)

Offers a plan for organizing and implementing a schoolwide reading week entitled, "Drop Everything Else, Read" (DEER). Presents explanations and directions for eight reading activities which focus on animals. Includes materials that can be duplicated and used by students as bookmarks and certificates. (ML)

A study of student reading habits at a Papua New Guinea university revealed that students read little professional material unless they were to be tested on it. Preferred reading materials were comics and fiction. Encouragement of reading habits in a country with only a recent written tradition is recommended. (MSE)

Reveals (1) some sex differences in children's reading preferences, but indicates some overlap; (2) that minority and nonminority children differed to some extent in their preferences, but had more similarities than differences; and (3) that children's reading interests have changed little in two decades. (FL)

Presents results of an in-house survey on the effects of booktalking conducted at John Oliver Secondary School, Vancouver. A description of the sample population (440 students), students' reading preferences and reading material selection, and student response to 18 booktalks are discussed. A 12-item bibliography is included. (EJS)

This examination of the reading processes of 36 fifth graders focused on the reader's attempts to gain meaning from three content passages using syntactic and semantic cue systems. The reading strategies of high, average, and low ability readers appeared not to vary with content. Prior knowledge and interest influenced comprehension. (Author/BS)

Describes the efforts of educators throughout the twentieth century to challenge committees, commissions, and teachers of English to investigate and communicate possible solutions to problems faced by real English teachers in real classrooms. (MM)

In the United Kingdom in 1977 a national questionnaire survey was conducted by the University of Sheffield (England) under the direction of Frank Whitehead with children ages 10-14 years old to discover the kind and extent of children's voluntary reading. In 1994/95, Whitehead's study was replicated in the context of the 1990s. This report…

Recreational reading has proved its importance in the public library systems nationwide, as confirmed by circulation records and significant consideration in library budgets, indicating the need to develop systems that bring the book and the reader together in a systematic way. This paper seeks to define the operation of readers' advisory programs…

The voices in this anthology, i.e., Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Anthony Trollope, E.M. Forster, Franz Kafka, Frederick Douglass, Emily Post, Virginia Woolf, Bernard Malamud, and many others, describe the excitement of first learning to read and remind everyone of the unique companionship offered throughout life by books. The anthology…

The Children's Literature Research Unit at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, implemented a research project examining what young people were reading at the end of the 20th century, similar to a research project which had been carried out at Roehampton Institute in London (1996). The research began with a pilot project. Its goals were to:…

The Teachers as Readers Project, originally developed by the American Association of Publishers, helps teachers encourage students to become lifelong readers. Teachers as Readers Book Groups consist of teachers and librarians who meet on a regular basis to read and discuss the same literature--at least four quality children's or adolescents' books…