This report describes the birth of the Eve Malmquist Institute for Reading (EMIR) and its first year of operation. The report is in two parts. The first part presents the addresses given at the opening ceremony where the speakers gave their views on different aspects of reading and reading development, such as reading for pleasure, reading…

Even though Swedish students (age 9 and 14 years) placed third in the recent IEA study, reading instruction in Swedish schools is apparently no better than in other countries taking part in the IEA study. No strong correlations between type of reading instruction and students' reading skills have been found. Schools in Nordic countries work under…