90: % of children ages 5—17 who believe they “need to be a strong reader to get into a good college”

81: % of parents who rank reading among the top three important skills for their child

82: % of parents who wish their child engaged in more pleasure reading

80: % of children ages 5—8 who believe reading for fun is “extremely or very important”

56: % of children ages 15—17 who believe reading for fun is “extremely or very important”

15: Age after which children are more likely to have read a magazine than a book in the past week

29: % of children who are “high frequency” Internet users who are also “high frequency” pleasure readers

8: Age after which more children go online daily than read daily

29: % of children who have read a digital book in the last year

62: % of children who prefer printed books to digital ones

27: % of children who have visited a book or author Web site

11: Age after which friends pass mothers as the top source of ideas about books to read for fun

From the Scholastic/Yankelovich 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report, released last week