Why this book? To provide students in teacher training programs, educational science, and psychology, as well as teachers and interested parents, with insights into the theory and practice of reading promotion. The book largely avoids a detailed presentation of scientific theories and empirical findings in order to engage readers who are not professionally involved or only minimally involved with reading and reading promotion. More than the regular disaster reports from the IQB state comparisons, IGLU, or PISA studies, it is of interest to understand how insufficient reading competencies arise and where one can intervene to promote them. Andreas Gold first explains how reading works and how children learn to read, as well as the importance of linguistic competencies for learning to read. It is astonishing that experienced readers can even recognize an arrangement of letters that is much.