Abstract
One of the most important tasks of the school is to teach the child to read. Duty does not end there however. Proper direction in good reading habits, tastes and interests must be developed also if the child is to cultivate a desire to become acquainted with the enduring beauty and wisdom that great men and women have created.|The influence of reading tastes and habits lasts a lifetime. Thus it is that parents and the school have a tremendous responsibility in presenting the right type of literature to the young and growing mind. To direct the reading of the early adolescent is a vast problem. In order to direct this reading properly and with the best success, it is essential that the individual's interests and appreciation as well as literary background be known.|This study, therefore, is concerned with the problem of discovering the literary background, reading tastes and interests of seventh and eighth grade pupils in thirty parochial schools in the city of Omaha, Nebraska.|Experience shows that before desirable reading interests may be established on the part of young people, much information is needed concerning present and past reading activities. It is also imperative that one know the influences that have determined whatever reading interests are found among young readers today. Accordingly, the chief purpose of this thesis is to examine the reading interests of seventh and eighth grade pupils of Omaha Catholic Schools and to report the various reading activities displayed among Catholic boys and girls.|It is the writer's opinion that the Catholic boy and girl should be reading better types of literature than boys and girls who do not have the Catholic school environment and influence. The purpose of this work, then, is to show what these boys and girls actually read and from such data to conclude whether or not Catholic boys and girls have proper interests in reading and perhaps to suggest means to broaden these interests.|What pupils read depends as much upon what is assigned or suggested that they read as upon the expression of their individual interests. However, there are certain well defined interests that develop as the reasoning power develops.