Explains the benefits of encouraging teenagers to read plays and provides an annotated bibliography of plays with young adult main characters. Reasons for their appeal to teenagers include themes involving strong central conflict, the consequences of making choices, and the universal conflict of generational value systems. (EAM)

Given the choice of reading or not reading books related to favorite TV programs, pupils showed they would read when their interests were engaged. (JH)

The Presidential proclamation proclaiming 1987 the "Year of the Reader" is presented in full followed by suggestions to help parents and teachers increase students motivation to read. (DB)

Literary reading is in dramatic decline, with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a July 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The survey "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline--28…

Educators know that an achievement gap exists between students of low-income and middle-income families, a gap that is especially evident in fourth grade and beyond. This essay explores issues related to this gap, including primary-level children being immersed in narrative text and, therefore, unprepared for the challenges of informational text…

The purpose of this study was to explore how critical pedagogy, culturally relevant curriculum, and student centered instruction impacted student engagement in reading for struggling high school readers, including first- and second-generation immigrants. The researcher/practitioner (r/p) chose to highlight Latinas in the study to understand the…

Graphic novels have been known to spark reading interest in teens. However, librarians still can not make the decision to integrate graphic novels into the book collection. In this article, the author addresses the issues related to the cataloging and classification of graphic novels.

A reading specialist tells two young people what reading means to him. (RB)

In direct replication of a previous study investigating newspaper readership and uses-and-gratifications statements, this study interviewed a parallel random sample from the same market as the initial study using the same questions. A telephone survey of 557 adults was conducted by trained undergraduates enrolled in an advanced research methods…

Analysis of the relationship of ten characteristics to item readership revealed that page number and length of story were major determinants. (KS)

A reading interest inventory was administered to 115 hearing-impaired students and 72 hearing students between the ages of 9 and 12. Hearing-impaired students had a broader base of interests than their hearing peers. Sex was a significant factor affecting hearing students' cluster choices but was not pervasive for the hearing-impaired students.…

An author of young adult literature discusses the methods he uses to "research" his books. (FL)

This brief look at what today's young people are reading does much to indicate what kind of people these young adults are. The books they read reflect their intense concern with the quality of their lives and the moral quality of their society. (NH)

Finds 12 to 15 reader interest clusters across newspaper markets. (FL)