What is the hold of literature on a reader's imagination, on my imagination? I remember many hours spent with books in a kind of romantic entanglement, and heartful obsession, and joyful reverie. I certainly remember being lost with words, lost in enthusiastic abandonment. I loved the sounds of words, and the images they conjured, and the…

A study of 127 French immersion students in Alberta found over two-thirds never read in French for pleasure outside school, a finding not influenced by gender, French reading achievement, or attitude towards reading in French. However, students benefitted from some methods used by teachers to stimulate reading. (51 references) (Author/MSE)

This study investigated the relative importance of the major factors associated with the habit of reading or nonreading. Some 2,731 seventh-grade students were the subjects of the study; from these, 487 were identified as either readers or nonreaders, and, from this group, 22 students were selected for additional in-depth case studies. From over…