PIRLS is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. This rigorous international survey compares the reading attainment and attitudes to reading of over 200,000 9- and 10-year-old children in 41 countries. It is the only international study to provide information on the reading habits of primary-aged children: the survey collects information not just on reading attainment, but also about children's reading attitudes and habits, and whether and what they read for pleasure. PIRLS first took place in 2001 and the second survey was in 2006. The report of the second survey provides information about the reading skills of children in England compared to their peers internationally. It also includes information about changes in attainment since the first survey. The NFER is the PIRLS national research centre for England and ran the survey on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The study was conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Following an Executive summary and Acknowledgements, the book includes eight chapters: (1) Background to PIRLS 2006; (2) Reading attainment in PIRLS 2006; (3) Trends in PIRLS reading attainment, 2001 and 2006; (4) Children and their reading; (5) Children at home; (6) The teachers and the schools; (7) The school climate; and (8) Other factors associated with reading achievement. Appended (1) International development of PIRLS materials and conduct of the survey; (2) The PIRLS reading assessments; (3) Achievement at the international benchmarks; (4) Sampling in PIRLS 2006; (5) An investigation into changes in England's PIRLS results 2001 to 2006; (6) Deriving a measure of deprivation; and (7) Multilevel analysis of PIRLS 2006 to investigate the relationships between background factors and reading attainment and attitudes. Includes References. (Contains 8 figures.)