What is the secret of Finnish reading literacy? Is the excellence achieved at the expense of equity? Is the secret hidden in the Finnish language or can it be found in the Finnish school system or curriculum or in Finnish teacher training and pedagogical practice? To what extent is the Finnish reading culture grounded in the tradition of book reading and to what extent does it take into account the wider concepts of new or media literacies? These questions have been asked hundreds of times during the last decades.

This book explores some perspectives on and possible reasons for the high reading literacy performance of Finnish students, drawing parallels to Nordic, European and global contexts. Some of the possible reasons and perspectives explored in the articles are based on measurements in PISA or in other international studies or national studies. Some are more hypothetical and in need of further research. Whatever the case, the primary goal of Finnish educational policy has not been to be the "number one" education system in the world but to provide all students with equal access to education and to remove obstacles to learning especially among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.