Since the significant report "Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading" (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, and Wilkinson 1985), more attention has been given to the need to motivate and encourage reading in addition to teaching reading skills. That report concluded that the best predictor of reading comprehension, vocabulary size, and gains in reading achievement between the second and fifth grade is personal reading. Then during the 1990s, the "whole language" and "literature across the curriculum" movements had as a primary objective the encouragement of more independent reading. As a result of this focus, several publications were influential in promoting specific approaches including "Fostering the Love of Reading: The Affective Domain in Reading Education" (Cramer and Cramer 1994) which is based on motivation theory and research. This article draws from recent research to posit that motivation to read is an essential ingredient to the development of good readers, and as importantly, to lifelong readers; and that there is evidence that reading attitudes and behavior are linked to reading achievement. Suggestions for the role of library media specialists, working cooperatively with teachers, are presented based on this research.