The reports discovered that boys aged five to 18 often skip parts of the books they are reading and choose reading material that is too easy for them.
The research was carried out by Keith Topping, professor of educational and social research at the University of Dundee. One study used data from 852,295 pupils in 3,243 schools while another examined the results of reading comprehension tests done by 150,220 students in 967 schools.
The studies, undertaken on behalf of education technology provider Renaissance, found that book genre has little bearing on children’s reading behaviour. Although boys are more likely to choose non-fiction titles, they still do not read these as thoroughly as girls.
The What Kids are Reading 2016 report also looked at children’s favourite books.
The book year 7 pupils read most often was Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, followed by Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
Year 8 pupils’ top titles were Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
The books read most often by year 9 to 11 pupils were Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
The books high-achieving pupils in year 7 read most often was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins while in years 8 and 9 the most frequently read book by high-achieving students was The Maze Runner by James Dashner.
When it came to non-fiction, the most popular author among year 7, 8 and 9 pupils was Roy Apps, who writes books about sporting heroes, including Wayne Rooney, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Andy Murray.
You can download the What Kids Are Reading report via http://whatkidsarereading.co.uk/wkar2016-full-report.pdf