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Introduction If you are reading this book, you are prob­ably already an engaged reader. If this is the case, you have experienced firsthand the benefits that being a reader confers upon you. You prob­ably have a wide vocabulary and a strong command of gram- mar. It is likely that you can string together an effective sentence without breaking a sweat. As a reader, you have the luxury of taking for granted a range of literacy skills that may pose a significant challenge for ­ those who do not read regularly. However, I doubt that many of you approach reading with one goal—to improve your literacy outcomes—­though this may be a ­ factor in your engagement. Few of us would sit down with a book with the isolated purpose of improving our com- municative capacity. We typically read for recreation ­because we enjoy it. This joy can come from many diverse ­factors, as I explore in this book, but the plea­sure afforded by reading would be the primary motivation for most of us to engage in the practice. As you have selected this book, I imagine that you have a keen desire to awaken this level of reading engagement in ­others, to justify your role as a literacy educa- tor or advocate, and to look for new and novel ways to shape the attitudes of the young ­people in your life ­toward reading books. As a teacher, parent, librarian, or other literacy advocate, you are no doubt aware that reading—­book reading in particular—is known to confer a range of benefits upon the reader. However, you may also have questioned ­whether books and reading have continued relevance in the so-­ called Digital Age. Blaring media headlines announce that the book is dead, that libraries are obsolete, and that the ­ future is digital. ­ These dire announcements and prognostications may give us pause while ­these proclamations are usually debunked in a timely manner (e.g., Darnton, 2011), we retain a sense of unease. We want to provide learning that is relevant, engaging, and impor­tant for our ­children and students, but what if we are fighting for a lost cause? In addition, the amount of time our young ­people spend engaged in alternative recreational pursuits may make us won­der ­ whether, realistically, we can anything do to ensure the transmission of a love of reading. We note that books compete against a range of pursuits that can give more immediate gratification, that may be more highly valued in the peer and home communities, and that may be more read- ily accessible. It is likely that you may, at some time, have wondered how much of a difference you can make when it comes to instilling a love of books and reading in young ­people, particularly teen­agers, who are constructed as highly autonomous