The National Literacy Trust has published its latest research report, which shows that using ebooks to read can help boys to make significant progress with their reading and get the most reluctant readers to enjoy reading more.

The study is one of the first and largest to explore the impact of ebooks on reading attitudes, behaviour and attainment in UK schools. Forty schools took part by using RM ebooks for their own literacy projects and a total of 468 pupils were surveyed before and after participating.

The Impact of Ebooks on the Reading Motivation and Reading Skills of Young People: a study of schools using RM Books found that during the project which lasted for an average of 4.2 months, boys' reading levels increased by an average of 8.4 months, compared to 7.2 months progress made by girls. At the same time, the percentage of boys that felt reading was difficult almost halved from 28.0% to 15.9%, suggesting that confidence in their own reading ability also increased as a result of this project. Twice as many boys also thought reading was cool at the end of the project, increasing from 34.4% before to 66.5% afterwards.

The report is also stored on our Publications/National Literacy Trust page for your convenience.