From friendship and ghosts to kidnappers and wizards : Characterizing traits in girls’ and boys’ favourite books

Swedish pupils’ reading ability has deteriorated in recent years. It may be important to tackle this problem in order to be able to further the pupil’s continued education. With this in mind it may be rewarding to investigate factors in literature which motivates pupils to read. The aim of the study is to investigate what characterizes girls’ and boys’ most frequently chosen favourite books in grade 5. To select the books for study, a questionnaire was distributed to 83 pupils, followed by textual analyses of the favourite books. Girls and boys were found to have different preferences for the literature they are motivated to read, but similarities were also found. The result shows that there are still gender patterns in reading which ought to be considered by those involved in school education. The study also discusses how knowledge of pupils’ literature preferences can be used as a means to generate motivation to read