We cannot say for sure that competitions in theoretical subjects has increased in Swedish schools. However, Swedish educators testify that the number of competitions in school has increased in recent years. Läsloppet is a reading competition aimed at third-graders, and is carried out in cooperation between the municipal library and the schools in a municipality in the southern parts of Stockholm. This case study examined how a third grade teacher reason about participation in this reading competition and how her class work with literature reading during the competition. Through a survey it also examined her students’ thoughts on reading in general and on participating in Läsloppet.

Within the theoretical frame of Aidan Chambers theories of reading environment and “the reading circle”, combined with various aspects on motivation, the purpose of this paper was to examine how Läsloppet could serve as a reading promotion tool, and what participating in a reading contest could mean for students’ motivation to read.

The questions used to answer this was:

• How can participating in Läsloppet be described based on the concept reading environment and various aspects of reading motivation?
• How does the teacher describe the participation in Läsloppet from an educational perspective?
• How do the students experience reading in school and the participating in Läsloppet?

Results showed that students with motivation in reading benefits the most by participating in the reading competition. Students with low or no interest in reading seems to show low interest in reading even after participating in the contest. From an educational perspective the competition had some positive effects in creating a good reading environment for the class participating in this study.