Children's and young people's reading is a prioritised cultural and educational policy issue in the Nordic countries. Through reading promotion initiatives, the aim is to raise literacy levels, enhance the joy of reading, and make literature a natural part of the daily lives of children and young people. These initiatives are also justified by the belief that a strong reading culture provides better opportunities for education and culture, as well as the ability to participate in society as active citizens and in the democratic debate (Prop. 2023/24:1; Ålands Landskapsregering 2024a; Finanslov 2024; Føroyar lesa. 2024; Althingi 2024a). Children and young people are a priority target group in the Nordic cultural policy cooperation programme, for example, through a reinforced effort to enhance reading and language comprehension among children and young people in the Nordic region, which aims to contribute to a sense of coherence, trust, and more viable societies (Nordic Council of ministers 2020, pp. 13, 16).

In this policy brief, Kulturanalys Norden presents a summary of current governmental reading promotion initiatives for children and young people in the Nordic countries and autonomous regions. It varies from country to country whether this is primarily a cultural or educational policy issue, but regardless, there is cooperation between the two policy areas, such as between libraries and schools. Efforts to increase reading can take different forms, but in several countries, there are national strategies for reading promotion. There are also special initiatives in school libraries, for example, in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. Several countries also provide project funding to organizations that promote reading, and in a couple of countries, there are initiatives in the form of reading gifts to families with young children.

The field of children's and young people's reading is broad and includes many aspects, such as language development, literacy, accessibility, reading promotion and literacy mediation. This compilation will primarily focus on reading promotion initiatives, i.e., initiatives aimed at increasing the desire to read and strengthening the reading culture among children and young people; it does not include initiatives that are specifically aimed at reading skills, accessibility for people with reading difficulties or initiatives focusing on national minorities, the indigenous Sami people or people with the national majority languages as a second language. The compilation is based on city budgets, national strategies and other government documents on reading promotion. Experts at the responsible authorities in the different countries and autonomous regions have also assisted us with information gathering and quality assurance.