Reading Interests of High-School Children

Abstract

Much has been written in books and magazines about the reading in terests of children of the primary, the elementary and even the junior high school, but there is little material about the reading interests of the senior high-school pupils, perhaps because it is generally accepted that the ideals and interests of the adolescent child are all nicely formed in his juvenile years and that these persist through late adolescence. In an effort to discover what girls of high-school age like to read, a survey was made in the Julia Richman High School by the school librarians. This school is one of New York's largest schools for girls, having a registration of about 4000. The student body is average for New York City, being made up of all nationalities with a large percentage of Jews. The school offers a four year general course with academic, commercial and fine arts ?lectives. It is divided into four groups based on the re sults of elementary school records, observation, and intelligence tests. Special emphasis has been placed upon vocational guidance and the course for the group of lowest intelligence has been modified in order to meet their needs. The survey was made largely in the school library which is used for reference and reading by eight to nine hundred pupils daily and has an average circulation of two hundred books per day. The survey con sisted of a questionnaire, a set of cards, a set of compositions on the reading preferences of a second term class, and the pupils' records of books read for outside reading during the four years of high school. The questionnaire was planned in an endeavor to discover the most popular titles among high-school girls, the kinds of fiction in the order of their preference, the magazines which they read most, and the effect of the physical makeup upon their choice of books. The form used was as follows: TABLE I Questionnaire Section Age 1. Name five books which you have read and liked. 2. Arrange the following kinds of fiction in the order of your preference : Stories of Home, Love stories, Mystery stories, Fairy stories, Character stories, School stories. 3. Name three magazines which you enjoy reading. 4. Answer the following questions with yes or no. 1. Do you prefer books which have illustrations? 2. Do you prefer books with bright covers? 3. Do you dislike large books? 4. Do you like thin books? 276