SHANGHAI primary school students aren’t reading enough books.

On average they read 8.42 books a year, according to a report released by PsyLife, an educational assessment consulting institution.

“The Little Prince,” “Father and Son,” “Charlie IX” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” were among the top 10 popular choices.

The conclusions were made based on more than 1.7 million entries of reading history kept by 94,000 pupils on the institution’s website in the past year and a questionnaire answered by over 9,000 parents, PsyLife said.

About 70 percent of the parents believed a child should read at least 15 records a year, but only 45 percent of the students met that expectation.

Among them, 22 percent read more than 30 books a year, and 25 percent read between 15 and 30.

According to the records on the website, only 17 percent of the students read at least 7 hours a week, or an hour a day on average.

Wu Fan, a mother of a 10-year-old, said it was no problem for her son to read 7 hours a week in the summer vacation, but it was not so easy during the semesters.

About two thirds of the parents said they usually bought books from online bookstores for their children and slightly over 28 percent said they bought from bookshops. “I love online shops. They are very convenient and usually have favorable discounts,” Wu said.

About a fifth of the families spent more than 800 yuan (US$120) a year on buying books for children, while 10 percent spent less than 200 yuan.

Parents mainly choose books according to schools’ recommended reading lists and children’s preferences. Those spending more on buying books would also take other information into account, such as rankings of popular books at the online shops.

Books with stories, popular science and cartoons were the top three popular categories among readers.