Growing evidence of the vital role reading for pleasure plays in children and young people’s academic outcomes and socio-emotional wellbeing has placed it high on the agenda in both educational policy and practice.

This valuable collection draws upon a range of disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches, to explore how reading for pleasure is experienced and enacted, and highlights the implications and benefits of such volitional reading in the lives and learning of children and young people. It offers contributions from leading international researchers on current evidence and literature within the field, identifying the causes and consequences of reading for pleasure, and framing this within the context of understanding readers and applying this to developing effective pedagogical practices. With chapters examining how we may shape the reading experience, this book is divided into four sections:

• Understanding readers, including factors such as motivation, gender and identity


• The nature of texts, including fiction, sensory and digital texts


• Pedagogies and practices, exploring agency, book talk and reading aloud


• Environments conducive to reading for pleasure, including homes, school libraries, classrooms and communities

Presenting diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, this will be a key text for researchers, teacher educators and policy-makers who wish to become better informed in their thinking, discourse and practice when supporting children and young people in learning to read for pleasure.