This powerful treatise is one every librarian, teacher, administrator, and parent concerned with a child's success should read. Krashen argues that free voluntary reading (FVR) is the most effective tool available for increasing a child's ability to read, write, spell, and comprehend. Whether the medium is the comics, teen romances, the sports page, or literature, reading is the key to linguistic improvement. In support of this argument, Krashen presents the cumulation of years of research from many different countries.