Leisure reading is important for personality development and mental growth of children. Reading habits developed during early childhood are likely to continue rest of the life. The main purpose of this study was to investigate leisure reading habits and preferences of young children in Singapore. A questionnaire was used for data collection and 254 children, aged between 6 to 12 years, participated in this study. It was found that reading was among the top five leisure-time activities of the surveyed children. Mostly mothers, followed by fathers, encouraged children to read books. The major reasons for leisure reading were to learn about new things, improve language skills, and to get better grades in tests and examinations. The majority of the children preferred reading print books and the most popular genres were adventure, mysteries, humour, and animal stories. This paper suggests that a multi-dimensional approach is required to promote leisure reading among young children
