The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to explore and gain insight into the research about efforts to promote literacy among children and adolescents and that are conducted by school and public libraries. And how studies about these literacy efforts take gender into account during research. To gain insight into the research topic within the library and information science area, a literature review was conducted. To gather articles for the review, criterions were formulated regarding the research questions and the purpose of the thesis. The criterions were then used to decide which article to include in the review among the articles that each database presented with the search string. For this thesis I used Dolatkhah’s (2010) theory of the four M of reading to analyse the articles that were gathered for the purpose of study. The results from the analysis show, that among other things, to the importance of cultivating a positive attitude to reading among both genders. That access to books, either at home or by a library can influence reading habits positively. Research underscores that both girls and boys consider reading to be a feminine activity. Meanwhile, girls on average also receive more encouragement to read books than boys.