Intended for those who want to encourage children to read, this book deals with children learning to read at different stages and explores four assumptions: reading is an important thing to do; reading is learned by reading; what beginning readers read makes all the difference to their view of reading; and to be successful, teaching and learning must be genuinely shared. The chapters are arranged by age of child (younger than 5, 5 to 7, 7 to 10, 11, and 14 and contain an account of what reading seems to involve for a child at that stage, suggestions for the kind of help a parent or interested adult can give, and an account of how some difficulties arise. Chapters also give some examples of the kinds of questions that people ask about children's reading. The book ends with a note about spelling and writing and with booklists for each of the ages mentioned. (HOD)