The aim of the study is to investigate what pupils in grade 1 think about reading aloud, reading alone, the selection of books, and the significance of reading. A subsidiary aimwas to examine the relation between the pupils? experiences of reading in the home andtheir ability to discuss a text they have read. A sidetrack in the study aimed to see whether the pupils? experiences of reading in the home affected their outlook on readingin general.

In school today pupils come in contact with all kinds of reading books. Education of Swedish reading development sometimes contain reading books organized at different levels of difficulty, with different amount of text. The purpose of the different difficulty levels is to give the less skilled readers an easier book and stronger readers a more difficult book. The purpose with this study is to find out if the book which is classified as more difficult, in reality is the most difficult and if the book which is considered to be easier really is. To find answers to these questions I will examine previous researcher?s theories on difficulty levels in reading books.

E-books are not yet fully established on the Swedish book market. A frequently discussed theory is that this might be because of a loss in the reading experience. This thesis has the primary purpose to investigate whether the reading experience from E-books differs from the experience of reading a traditional book in paper. The book used for comparation is a poetry collection named Rakel delat med tio. I have designed the cover and the inlay of this book and as a part of the thesis the working progress is described.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how parents? in multilingual families perceive language learning and reading for young children, and how their practice of this can be understood in relation to their language situation and cultural background.This study focuses on the interaction between parents? and young children in the light of the literacy practice. Important concepts such as early childhood literacy and family literacy have been used to study language, culture and literacy practice as phenomena that interact. The theoretical framework is a sociocultural perspective. Through qualitative interviews with seven parents?, it was found that multilingual families have a strong ambition for their children to learn all the languages spoken in the family.

The aim of this masters thesis is to explore a mediators practical procedure during booktalks. The main question is: Why do librarians have booktalks and what does it mean to have booktalks for children? In order to answer our main question, we have used these three questions: - Why do our interviewed librarians have booktalks? - How do our informants prepare their booktalks and what do their presentations look like? - Do our informants have any follow-ups of their booktalks and if so, how do they do that? To limit the thesis, we have concentrated our study to Swedish public libraries and to children in the elementary school. We have conducted qualitative interviews with three librarians who do booktalks for children as a part of their job. The thesis theoretical basis is Aidan Chambers theory about the Reading Circle and especially the parts enabling adult and selection.

This thesis investigates young people´s (16-21) preferences in reading through a survey including interviews and questionnaires. The groups attitudes towards reading and libraries, their reading and library habits, and to what extent eight libraries had bought the preferred literature were also examined. Some reports from the 80´s were used to find the changes. The result shows that youngsters read and visit libraries somewhat more frequently. Trivial literature is not as dominant, more teenage-books were read.

The purpose of this study is to examine how women?s reading of the Harry Potter books can be understood on the basis of gender theory and reader-response criticism. The empirical data is gathered through qualitative interviews with six female Harry Potter readers between the age of 21 and 35, and is analyzed through several theories regarding gender and reading. The results show that the readers are critical towards many aspects of the books, especially when it comes to the stereotyped depiction of women and men. The books are said to reproduce the gender dichotomy, the gender hierarchy and the heteronormativity in society.

AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to make suggestions as to how librarians can promote young reluctant readers to help them find the joy of reading. We want to show how the comprehension of these children and adolescents can be translated into action in the librarians work with reading promotion.Our main questions are:? What attitudes do the librarians find that children and adolescents, ages 9-15 with reluctance to read, have towards reading?? What do public- and school librarians do to stimulate children and adolescents, ages 9-15 that are reluctant to read, to feel the joy of reading?? What role or which roles can the public- and school librarians have in the work of reading promotion, targeting children and adolescents with a reluctance to read?We have used Beers's theories about reluctant readers and reading promotion, Chambers's model and theory ?Reading Circle? and his theories about conditions that promote a ?good reading environment?. We have also used Smidt's theories about the librarian's different roles in the work of supplying literature.The method we have used is qualitative and based on literature and interviews with 7 children- and school librarians that all of whom work or have worked with reading promotion for children and adolescents in the ages between 9-15, that are reluctant to read.Our results show that in order to gain understanding about the attitudes towards, and relationship to reading, our targeted group have, the librarian has to be aware of the inner conditions that these children and adolescents have. These inner conditions are going to affect the work and the result of the reading promotion activity.

Children's library's primary task is to encourage children to read. Promoted readingleads to increased reading skills. A common method for this purpose is booktalk. This studyaims to examine how children?s librarians work with booktalk aimed towards children andhow it can be developed as a working method to support the library's reading promotionactivities.

This thesis investigates young people's (16-21) preferences in reading through a surveyincluding interviews and questionnaires. The groups attitudes towards reading and libraries,their reading and library habits, and to what extent eight libraries had bought the preferredliterature were also examined.Some reports from the 80's were used to find the changes. The result shows that youngstersread and visit libraries somewhat more frequently. Trivial literature is not as dominant, moreteenage-books were read. Popular themes are love, history, reality, fantasy/sf, and detectivestories.

The aim of the study is to show how children and adults are described in three picture books, examining how children and adults are portrayed in text-and-picture narrative and how this has changed over time. We have analysed how the characters in the books are presented and how the representation of children and adults has changed in our own times.The material for the study consists of three picture books from different periods, with the focus on how children and adults are described as the common point of departure. The analysed picture books are: Tomtebobarnen (Beskow 1919), Aja baja, Alfons Åberg! (Bergström 1972) and Snäll (Dahle 2008).We have arrived at the conclusion that a text-and-picture narrative is in very large measure a reflection of the outlook on children, childhood and child rearing at the time when the book was published. The result shows that the greatest change that has happened is that parents? and adults? dominance in the books has declined over the years, and that children have been given a more prominent role.

The aim of the study is to show how children and adults are described in three picture books, examining how children and adults are portrayed in text-and-picture narrative and how this has changed over time. We have analysed how the characters in the books are presented and how the representation of children and adults has changed in our own times.The material for the study consists of three picture books from different periods, with the focus on how children and adults are described as the common point of departure. The analysed picture books are: Tomtebobarnen (Beskow 1919), Aja baja, Alfons Åberg! (Bergström 1972) and Snäll (Dahle 2008).We have arrived at the conclusion that a text-and-picture narrative is in very large measure a reflection of the outlook on children, childhood and child rearing at the time when the book was published. The result shows that the greatest change that has happened is that parents? and adults? dominance in the books has declined over the years, and that children have been given a more prominent role.

AbstractToday?s society is multicultural which can lead to racism and prejudices. Racism is created by prejudices and values. These values and prejudices are passed on to the children through media parents and/or society. The children then make these values to their own.

Children with Reading and Writing Difficulties and Their Language and Cognitive AbilitiesA Comparison with Children with a Cochlear ImplantAbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the cognitive abilities that are important for reading in children with reading disabilities, children with a cochlear implantation and typically developed children. 64 children aged 10-12 years participated in the study. To answer the question at issue we used the following tests: Block Design from WISC III, PPVT III, TOWRE, SL 40 and a few chosen tests out of the SIPS battery. On tests of the lexical access children with reading disabilities performed at the same level as hearing children, while the children with a cochlear implant performed significantly lower. Test of the phonological and complex working memory showed that children with reading disabilities performed significantly higher than children with a cochlear implant, but at the same time lower than typically developed children on the test of phonological working memory.