Good reading skills are an essential part of everyday life. This article
presents two Finnish projects JEKKU (2010-2011) and LUKUINTO
(2012-2015) that aim to enhance children’s engagement and success in
reading. The research results of these studies are described in this
article from three perspectives: reading skills, reading materials, and
reading interventions. The main aim of this article is to highlight how
helping children to read and enjoy reading is not complicated. Our
studies show that children who are interested in what they read, and
experience pleasure and success while reading, are provided with
comfortable reading places and enough time to concentrate on reading,
read more and become confident readers. The basics of reading skills and
the attitudes towards reading are created in the early years, so it is
important to concentrate on making these reading experiences more
interesting and enjoyable for all young children. This article is not a traditional
research article, but collects the results of the two projects together
and strives to give concrete tools for reading enhancement to all
educators.