Reading ability usually comes with learning and is linked to the family circle, the educational system and the national cultural plan as well as the nature of the society itself. This study aims at identifying the reality o( the reading ability and the reading spaces available for children in Algeria. One of the most important results of the study is that the weakness of reading ability among Algerian children is due to many different reasons: the lack of reading spaces and the absence of a national cultural plan to develop reading as a skill and as a leisure activity in the country in general and in children's environment in particular.