Purpose: This study investigated the effects of early shared reading and access to books on reading vocabulary in middle childhood and the pathways associated with later reading success. Method: Path analysis of data from four waves of a national longitudinal study of children (N = 7,751) was used to investigate direct and indirect effects of…

In 2011, a national strategy "Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life" was published in the Republic of Ireland. One key aspect of the strategy was that it placed a renewed focus on reading for pleasure in post-primary classrooms. The researchers involved in this article worked for the Professional Development Service for Teachers, a…

Reports on the responses of children in Northern Ireland to "The Twelfth Day of July" by Joan Lingard, a contemporary novel set in their own country. (HOD)

Analyzes the relationship between amount of time devoted to leisure reading by Irish elementary school children and a series of personal, home, and school variables. Reports that reading consumed 5.4 percent of available leisure time and that the variables considered accounted for only 22.9 percent of the variation in time in book reading. (MKM)

Diaries showing how 920 Irish fifth graders spent their leisure time on three designated days within one week augmented data about the children's personal, school, and home characteristics to aid in determining the primary factors related to the amount and type of leisure time reading. The children reported spending a median time of 60 minutes per…