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Report on Teen Read Week 2003
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
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Out of the 3,677 people that responded to this survey, 2,226 (60.54%) were girls and 1,451 (39.46%) were boys.
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| Gender of Respondents |
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Out of the people that responded to this question, 3,489 were between the ages of 11 and 18. There were also some interesting outliers with 27 respondents being 6 years old and 72 who were 22 and older.
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| Age of Respondents |
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Out of the 3,612 respondents, 1,293 are the oldest, 922 are middle children, 1107 are younger children, and 290 are only children.
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| Birth Order of Respondents |
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3,143 people responded to this question and 634 did not respond.
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| Racial/Ethnic Background |
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count | percent |
ethnicity
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| africa |
345 | 10.98 |
| asia |
190 | 6.05 |
| europe |
1535 | 48.84 |
| latin |
293 | 9.32 |
| middleeast |
130 | 4.14 |
| namerica |
175 | 5.57 |
| pacific |
44 | 1.4 |
| multi |
431 | 13.71 |
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Out of those who answered this question, 25 were from Afganistan, 19 were from Australia, 5 were from the Azerbaijan Republic, 144 from Bahrain, 37 were from Canada, 6 were from Egypt, 105 were from England, 6 were from Georgia, 33 were from Germany, 6 were from Guatemala, 24 were from India, 16 were from Ireland, 11 were from Italy, 9 were from Jordan, 3 were from Laos, 25 from Mexico, 19 from the Philippines, 21 from Puerto Rico, 11 from Saudi Arabia, 9 from Scotland, 2,806 were from the United States, 5 from Uzbekistan, and 12 from Wales. There were also many other respondents from many other countries!
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Out of the 3,777 respondents, 411 live in a Big City, 1,072 live in a Suburb, 1,422 live in a Town, 221 live in a Village, 370 live in a Rural Area, and 281 did not respond.
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| Where Respondents Live |
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Of the responses, 2,153 respondents go to schools where the libraries celebrate Teen Read Week, 486 do not, and 1,045 don't know.
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| School Libraries that Celebrate Teen Read Week |
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1,338 of the respondents to this survey have public libraries that Celebrate Teen Read Week, 368 do not, and 1,981 do not know.
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| Public Libraries that Celebrate Teen Read Week |
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885 respondents excel in school, 1,440 make good grades, 217 do well, 310 don't do well, 583 are average, 91 were below average, and 181 did not answer.
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| Good Grades |
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1,776 respondents enjoy reading a lot, 1,399 enjoy reading a little, and 506 do not enjoy reading at all. When we asked those taking the survey how they felt about the statement, "I don't like to read because it isn't cool," they had some definite opinions about it! There were 1857 respondents that said they strongly disagreed, 1036 that disagreed, 462 that were neutral, 102 that agreed, and 176 that strongly agreed. It looks like reading is cool after all!!
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| Enjoyment of Reading |
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1,886 have an advanced reading level, 1,391 have an average reading level, 195 have a below average reading level, and 191 have a reading level other than these three.
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| Rated Reading Level |
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We asked people who took this survey how much they agreed with the statement: "I always read about things that I am passionate about." There were 813 that said they strongly agreed, 1243 that agreed, 1031 that were neutral, 298 that disagreed, and 262 that strongly disagreed.
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| I Always Read About Things That I Am Passionate About |
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We asked poeple who took this survey how much the agreed with the statement: "I read constantly for my own personal satisfaction." There were 24.62% that strongly agreed, 28.76% that agreed, 24.48% that were neutral, 13.14% that disagreed, and 9% strongly disagreed.
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| I Read Constantly For My Own Personal Satisfaction |
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We asked people who took this survey how much they agree with the statement: "I don't have much time to read for pleasure, but I like to when I get the chance." There were 639 people that strongly agreed, 1187 that agreed, 756 that were neutral, 553 that disagreed, and 510 that strongly disagreed. We also asked a similar question, "I don't like to read because I don't have time." Respondents answered that 1068 strongly disagreed, 1088 disagreed, 863 were neutral, 400 agreed, and 210 strongly agreed.
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| I Don't Have Much Time To Read For Pleasure, But I Like To When I Get the Chance |
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We asked people who took this survey how much the agreed with the statement: "I only read what I'm supposed to for school." There were 432 (11.87%) that strongly agreed, 505 (13.87%) that agreed, 558 (15.33%) that were neutral, 1017 (27.94%) that disagreed, and 1128 (30.99%) that strongly disagreed. This is great to hear that those who took this survey like to read things other than assignments that they get from school!
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| I Only Read What I'm Supposed To For School |
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We wanted to know what people's opinions were on the statement "I basically don't read books much at all." Respondents gave us the following results: 375 strongly agreed, 415 agreed, 523 were neutral, 815 disagreed, and 1516 strongly disagreed. Notice this trend on the graph which shows people increasingly disagree with this statement.
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| I Basically Don't Read Books Much At All |
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We asked people who took this survey about the statement, "I read because my parents encourage me to." There were 1068 that strongly disagreed, 1073 that disagreed, 801 neutral, 456 that agreed, and 245 that strongly agreed. This was also consistent with a follow-up question that asked, "I read just for the fun of it!". The majority of respondents (1132) said that they strongly agreed with this statement and 836 that agreed. This shows that most girls do just read for fun and not because their parents encourage them too. There were 998 girls that agreed with the statement "I read because I have to for school." There were 730 that disagreed and 561 that strongly disagreed with that statement.
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| I Read Because My Parents Encourage Me To |
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count | percent |
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parents
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| sagree |
245 | 6.73 |
| agree |
456 | 12.52 |
| neutral |
801 | 21.99 |
| disagree |
1073 | 29.45 |
| sdisagre |
1068 | 29.32 |
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Most of the people who took this survey (1042) answered that they were neutral to the statement, "I read because I get bored and have nothing else to do." There were 405 that straongly agreed, 742 that agreed, 817 that disagreed, and 618 that strongly disagreed. In contrast to this, we asked how much they agreed with the statement, "I don't like to read because it's boring". There were 1478 that strongly disagreed, 797 that disagreed, 542 that were neutral, 355 that agreed, and 460 that strongly agreed.
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| I Read Because I Get Bored And Have Nothing Else To Do |
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count | percent |
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bored
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| sagree |
405 | 11.18 |
| agree |
742 | 20.47 |
| neutral |
1042 | 28.75 |
| disagree |
817 | 22.54 |
| sdisagre |
618 | 17.05 |
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We asked how much they agreed or disagreed with this statement, "I read to learn things on my own." We found that many respondents definitely do read things to learn on their own. There were 751 that strongly agreed, 1170 that agreed, 913 that were neutral, 453 that disagreed, and 344 that strongly disagreed. It is also interesting to note that when we asked if people they hang out with like to read and talk about books there were a large proportion that strongly disagreed. In fact, 26.99% that strongly disagreed with this, 21.71% that disagreed, 26.11 that were neutral, 18.16% that agreed, and 7.04% that strongly agreed that the people they hang out with like to read and talk about books.
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| I Read To Learn On My Own |
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We wanted to know how often people read different types of reading materials. Presented below are type of reading material and the top three time frames along with the number of people who voted for that time frame. **note 1x/week= "one time per week", 2x/month= "two times per month", etc.
How often...
...do you read book assigned for class? Daily (887), 1X/month (478), 1X/week (458)
...do you read outside of class for pleasure? Daily (1327), never (824), 2X/week (583)
...do you read poetry? Never (1437), 1X/month(337), 1X/week (322)
...do you read newspapers? Never (1038), daily (890), 1X/week (634)
...do you read newsletters or school papers? Never (1363), 1X/week (499), daily (448)
...do you read comic books or graphic novels? Never (1550), daily (467), 1X/month (290)
...do you read news magazines? Never (1317), daily (467), 1X/week (426)
...do you read fashion or beauty magazines? Never (1719), daily (564), 1X/month (254)
...do you read sports magazines? Never (1676), daily (534), 2X/week (263)
...do you read video game magazines? Never (2334), 1X/month (196), 1X/year (187)
...do you read music or entertainment magazines? Never (1164), daily (642), 1X/month (420)
...do you read computer magazines? Never (2835), 1X/month (171), 1X/year (158)
...do you read puzzle or game magazines? Never (2146), daily (257), 1X/year (240)
...do you read humor magazines? Never (1796), 1X/month (306), 1X/year (295)
...do you read websites or webzines? Never (1314), 2X/week (489), 1X/week (292)
...do you read computer manuals or other types of manuals? Never (2578), 1X/year (260), 1X/month (199)
...do you read cereal boxes or other product packaging? Daily (1161), never (1085), 2X/week (402)
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We asked people who took this survey what materials they liked to read the best, the overwhelming majority (1,484 or 39.31%) like to read for pleasure, 462 or 12.24% liked to read about fashion, 388 or 10.28% liked their assigned reading best, 8.24% or 311 liked to read sports magazines, 7.47% or 282 read about music and entertainment, 273 or 7.23% like to read about video games, 224 or 5.93% read comic books, 89 or 2.36% read websites, 1.8% or 68 people read humorous magazines, 1.56% or 59 like to read the newspaper, 1.27% or 48 like to read their cereal boxes, 21 - 0.56% read newsletters, 20 or 0.53% read news magazines, 0.5% - 19 read puzzles, 18 or 0.48% read on the computer, and 0.24% or 9 read computer manuals.
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| Favorite Reading Material |
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count | percent |
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favread
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| assigned |
388 | 10.28 |
| pleasure |
1484 | 39.31 |
| newspapr |
59 | 1.56 |
| newslett |
21 | 0.56 |
| comicbks |
224 | 5.93 |
| newsmag |
20 | 0.53 |
| fashion |
462 | 12.24 |
| sportsmg |
311 | 8.24 |
| videogm |
273 | 7.23 |
| musicent |
282 | 7.47 |
| computer |
18 | 0.48 |
| puzzles |
19 | 0.5 |
| humormag |
68 | 1.8 |
| websites |
89 | 2.36 |
| compman |
9 | 0.24 |
| cerealbx |
48 | 1.27 |
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We wanted to know how many books per month, on average, do people read that are not assigned by their school. It looks like about 22.04% don't read any other books, while in a close second is 20.4% reading 2-3 books. Respondents also reported that 12% read under one book per month, 12.21% read only one book per month, 12.45% read 4-5 books per month, 8.95% read 6-10 books, 5.38% read 11-20 books per month, and 6.57% read more than 20 books per month! Wow that's almost one book per day not including school readings!
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| Number of Books Read Except Assignments |
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We wanted to know the time of day that most people do their reading (outside of reading for school assignments). Those who took the survey reported: 13.85% in the morning (523), 3.81% on the bus (144), 5.01% in study hall (189), 3.58% on school breaks (135), 0.9% at lunch (34), 8.19% after school (309), 8.11% before dinner (306), 12.4% after dinner (468), and 44.16% in bed (1667). Looks like most of you like a good book to curl up with and fall asleep to!
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| Time Of Day I Read |
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We asked those who took the survey who they talked with about books and the majority, 1734 talked with their friends, 1,526 talked with parents, 961 didn't talk to anyone, 960 talked to teachers and 935 talked with their siblings, 607 talked with their grandparents and 205 talked in a book club. We also asked who encouraged them to read for fun by setting a good example. 2, 089 respondents were encouraged by their moms, 2, 010 said they were encouraged by their teachers, 1, 509 were encouraged to read by their dads, 978 were encouraged by their friends, 511 by their aunts, 411 by their uncles, 165 by a coach, and 33 were encouraged to read by the media.
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| People Talked with About Books |
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We asked those who took the survey to tell us what kind of books that they liked to read for fun and the neat thing about this question was you could select more than one answer! It looks like action/adventure, sports, fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery novels are among the favorites!
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| What Kind Of Books Do Respondents Read For Fun |
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We asked those who took the survey to tell us their favorite characters/people that they liked to read about. As you can see below there are many favorites but the ones that top the charts are: people like me (1819 votes), people that do amazing things (1628 votes), fantasy characters (1275 votes), characters that deal with hard issues such as poverty and crime (1262 votes), and people a lot different than themselves (1195 votes).
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| Characters/People We Like To Read About |
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We wanted to know how people decide what books they are going to read. Most people said that they just choose books on topics that they are interested in (15.25%), some look around the library until they find something (11.14%), some read books that their friends recommended (9.68%), and some just want to read more about something that they don't know much about (7.59%).
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| Decisions About What Book To Read |
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We wanted to know all the places that people get their books from. Here are the choices we gave and the amount of votes each category received: school library (2568), teachers (905), public library (1787), college library (172), parents (1184), bookstore (1942), internet sources (596), friends (1103), as gifts (1401), church (4), myself (10), book club (4), other family members (54), yard/garage sales (4), borrow (10), all of the above (8), none of the above (73), I don't read (5), and other (71).
In relation to this question we also wanted to know how often respondents visited the school library and the public library. Those who took the survey reported on average they go once a week to school libraries (861 votes, 22.81%). Some respondents said that they usually never go to public libraries (1376 votes, 36.46%), but some also reported to go on average once a month (399 votes, 10.57%).
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| Where Respondents Get Books |
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We wanted to know if those who took the survey were read to when they were little. Based on our results, it looks like the majority of you did in fact get read to a lot (2176 votes)!! There were 813 people that reported that sometimes they were read to, 348 that said that they were not read to very much, 198 that commented they were never read to at all, and 239 said that they really don't remember.
We also wanted to know if those who took the survey would read more for fun if they had more time. Here's what we found:
Yes, Definitely!: 1353 responses
Probably Yes: 1121 responses
Probably No: 524 responses
No, Definitely Not!: 288 responses
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| Amount People Were Read To Out Loud As A Kid |
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We wanted to know what book is the favorite of all time for either pleasure or for school. Check out our top ten list below and see if you favorite book is shared by other people! We had some ties so we included them all in the same ranking.
10. The Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
8. Men in Black by Steven Perry and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
7. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
6. The Giver by Lois Lowry
5. The Bible
4. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
2. Holes by Louis Sachar
1. Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
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We asked, "What's the best book you've read for the fun of it this year?"
Drum roll, please (ties are all included in the same ranking).....
10. Chicken Soup
9. All American Girl
8. Hatchet
7. Cat in the Hat
6. Alice Series
5. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
4. Princess Diaries and A Child Called "It"
3. Lord of the Rings
2. Holes
1. Harry Potter Series
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Here are some comments that people wanted to share with us about reading or this survey:
I love discussing a book right after I have finished reading it. I love having Socratic seminars in class because you get to hear other people’s points of view which is always fun. You also get to express your own opinions about the books, which is a good thing because I love to express my opinions.
I don't think that young people really read enough anymore, and young people have lost interest in reading a good book once in a while. Reading helps you learn and improves your vocabulary and spelling, and many more things. I've always loved reading!
Reading was never an interest of mine until seventh grade when I was told about the Harry Potter books by a friend; after the first few pages I was hooked; not just on Harry, but on reading in general. I owe my good grades and passion for reading to J.K.Rowling. Her books inspired my creative writing and art. Now I pick up all sorts of books and I often tell my friends who say they don’t like to read that: "There is no one who hates reading, it’s just that they haven't read Harry!"
I think it is good to start reading to kids at an early age. It gets them interested in books. I know as a kid my mom would read aloud to my brothers and I read every night before bed. We would always look forward to it and always begged her to read one more chapter. I know it might sound dumb but she read the Harry Potter series to us and I was in high school. It’s just a great way to bring people together.
I love to read but there aren't many really good books I haven't read that are on my reading level or in my interests. Libraries also never seem to have the latest new books unless they are really popular or way below my level. I would love it if more emphasis was put on more widely varied selections of higher reading level.
I think reading is great. It lets you explore your imagination and no two people reading the same book will be imagining the same thing. That’s why I like to read a lot.
Reading is my favorite thing in the world. When I am mad, or bored, or ANYTHING I read. If we go on a two minute car ride, I have a book. If I go to a bookstore I have money and I have my library card for whenever I go to the library. Besides school, it is the subject I talk about most with anybody who will listen. Books have helped me in every aspect of my life, especially in school and making friends!
If I was a better reader and had more time, I would read more often. Also, there are only a selected amount of books that I enjoy, so if I could always find a good book to read, I would read more often. I enjoy magazines when I have time, however, and reading the paper.
When I read I make a game out of it. I pretend that I am in the book. It really is a lot of fun to do I know a lot of people that do the same thing that I do. I really enjoy reading other books that I am interested in, like scientific books and poetry that’s what I love the best, besides school and my education.
Reading is probably one of the best hobbies you could have. I was taught to read early and I love to read it my spare time and I am a straight A student. Reading is not uncool. It will help you become smarter and succeed in life. Plus, reading isn't always about book reports and due dates. You can read about something you enjoy and it won’t feel like such a drag. Try it!
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
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