The goal was to explore 1) what kind of attitudes boys and girls have towards reading during their first two school years, 2) what kind of reading material and teaching methods motivate boys as well as girls to read and study, and 3) how well young students are able to assess their reading competence. 563 children took part in the study. The girls had significantly more positive attitudes towards reading and they could significantly better assess their skills than the boys. To motivate all students to read teachers should find out what topics and genres of literature interest reluctant readers.