Summary

Børn læser bøger. Læsevaner, læsefærdighed, højtlæsning. (=Children Read Books. Reading Habits, Reading Ability, Reading Aloud). - by Anette Steffensen and Torben Weinreich. - Cph. : RUC, 2000. - 101 p. : ill. - is a report on the reading habits of children aged between nine and twelve.

901 children were asked how much they read, how they evaluated their own reading skills and how much they were read to at pre-school age. In addition, they were asked to write down the titles of the books they had read the previous month and which books they preferred (the best three books they had ever read or had had read to them).
The survey is a follow-up to two earlier surveys: the survey of children's leisure habits carried out by the Ministry of Culture in 1978 and the survey of children's reading habits carried out by the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies in 1993.
The survey took place in week 4 of January, 2000. As experience shows that children's reading habits vary according to season, the survey was carried out in the same period as the 1993 survey. The questions were also put in the same way in order to have a sound basis for comparison.

Conclusions regarding the Extent of Children's Reading

- While there was a fall in the number of books read by 9-12 year olds in the 1977/78 - 1993 period, there has not been a corresponding fall in the 1993 - 2000 period. This is supported by other surveys. 75% of all children read regularly, that is, at least several times a month. 56% read at least several times a week. 25% read rarely or never.
- Girls read more than boys. While 63% of girls read at least several times a week, the figure for boys is 47%. This ratio between girls' and boys' reading is reflected in other surveys, also the surveys carried out at the beginning of the 1970s.
- It is noticeable that boys, taken as a whole, appear to read rather more today than they did in 1993. In 1993 38% of boys read either rarely or never, whereas there are only 32% in this category in 2000. The explanation for this could be the increased attention given to children's reading, which was a feature of the 1990s. There are also - though this is less marked - fewer girls who read rarely or never.

- The number of children who read a lot begins to fall in the period between the third and fourth classes. The fall continues steadily until the sixth class and is more pronounced with girls, especially in the time between the third and fourth classes.
- Children in the 9 - 12 age range appear to have a realistic assessment of their reading skills. 59% regard themselves as fairly good or very good readers, while only 9% see themselves as not such good readers or downright bad readers. The number of children who assess themselves as good readers is higher in the third class than in the sixth class. This is especially true for boys.
- While there is a clear parallel between how much children read and their reading ability, it is true that there are many children - particularly boys - who read rarely or never, although they assess themselves as good readers. - Most children of pre-school age have been read to at home, two-thirds of them at least several times a week. There appears to be a parallel between how much reading is done in the 9 - 12 age range and how much reading was done at pre-school age.
A large percentage of those children who read rarely or never indicate that, at pre-school age, they were rarely or never read to at home.

These are the key findings of the present survey with respect to the reading habits of the 9 - 12 age group. There is, therefore, no need to be pessimistic. Danish children read quite a lot, even compared with children in other countries. And today they read just as extensively as at the beginning of the 1990s when the media were at a very different stage of development. The emergence of new media and the expansion of familiar media in this period has not led to Danish children reading less. On the contrary, all the signs are that the group of children who rarely or never read in their free time has grown smaller.
There are some teaching and some publishing challenges inherent in the fact

- that a focussed effort can apparently result in more children reading
- that reading outside the classroom begins to decrease in the fourth class, in other words, shortly after children have learnt to read and have indeed become used to reading
- that there is quite a large group of children who read well but who choose to read only a limited number of books
- that children who are read to while they are small are apparently much more likely to be the children who read than those children who are not read to
- that boys' and girls' reading habits and consumption of media are very different.

Conclusions regarding the Nature of Children's Reading

- There is a great deal of variation in children's reading. Over a month the children's reading included in total 1,598 titles and about 701 different authors of fiction books, as well as non-fiction books and some unidentified titles.
- Children are not influenced by blockbusters or best sellers.
- Girls read more than boys. They not only read more books a month, their reading is more varied with regard to author and title. Boys read from a greater range of genres than girls.
- Girls read more series. Series are nowhere near so popular with boys.
- Boys read more non-fiction, comics and newspapers than girls.
- In the fifth and sixth classes girls begin to read weekly magazines and magazines for young adults.
- Boys read a wide range of non-fiction, while girls mainly read non-fiction books about horses.
- What girls read is dependent on their age and varies from grade to grade. What boys read differs in the third grade from the other grades, otherwise there is great similarity, although the number of easy readers decreases as boys grow older.
- There are authors and books which appeal to both boys and girls, and there are others which appeal only to one sex. Astrid Lindgren, Bjarne Reuter, Ole Lund Kierkegaard are among those read by both boys and girls. R.L.Stines and Dennis Jürgensen's stories of suspense are read especially by boys. Per Gammelgaard and Tine Bryld are only read by girls. Phyllis Reynolds Taylor, Kerstin Sundh and Lisbeth Pahnke are read by both boys and girls, but mainly by girls.
- There are more parallels between the reading of the older boys and girls than there are between the younger boys and girls.
- The older the children are, the fewer easy readers there are in the twenty most popular books.
- The boys and girls who read a lot are more informed about author and title. The survey reveals that children do not identify with an author; instead they choose books by title or subject.
- Boys prefer suspense, humour, thrillers and historical books. Girls read realistic books, books about horses, fairy stories and tales of fantasy.

- There are parallels between "books read the previous month" and "the best books" but there is also some variation.
- Approximately half of the authors of "books read the previous month" appear among the twenty best authors.
- There is a drop in the number of easy readers represented when children have to pick out "the best books".
- As far as genre is concerned, there are no big differences between "books read the previous month" and "best books". Boys prefer suspense, tales of fantasy and adventure, books about football, humour and historical books. Girls like series and realistic books most, but also read humour and tales of fantasy.
- Both boys and girls pick out H.C.Andersen's fairy tales (almost every grade) and A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh.
- According to 9 - 12 year olds in general the ten best authors are the following (the figures in brackets indicate how often the individual author was mentioned):

1. Lindgren, Astrid (180)
2 Jürgensen, Dennis (101)
3. Reuter, Bjarne (75)
4. Kirkegaard, Ole Lund (58)
5. Stine, R.L. (48)
6. Andersen, H.C. (35)
7. Rowling, Joanne K. (34)
8. Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds (31)
9. Olsen, Lars-Henrik (29)
10. Wilder, Laura Engalls (26)
Haller, Bent
Faurby, Bent

For comparison, the 9 - 12 year olds chose the following ten most read authors in "the previous month" (the figures in brackets indicate how often the individual author was mentioned):

1. Lindgren, Astrid (100)
2. Jürgensen, Dennis (89)
3. Stine, R.L. (73)
4. Reuter, Bjarne (54)
Gammelgaard, Per
6. Nielsen, Bent (46)
7. Andersen, H.C. (44)
8. Kierkegaard, Ole Lund (43)
9. Faurby, Bent (38)
10. Hansen, Hans Chr. (36)

- As is the case with "books read the previous month", what girls read varies from grade to grade. The picture changes, however, when we look at what boys read. Although there are many similarities between what boys read in the various grades, there is greater variation from grade to grade when they have to choose "the best books".
- In summary, the 2000 survey has shown that 9 - 12 year olds are able to pick out some authors and titles over others, regardless of what they have just been reading. All the signs indicate that there is a group of authors and books which have special appeal for 9 - 12 year olds.