This study proposes a schema for categorising reading interests based on an identification of basic interest and dominant interest(s) among interest elements in reading materials. A methodology which involved making forced choices within thirteen groups of three passages, each with a unique combina-tion of interest elements, was used to ascertain the reading interests of 438 fourth and 412 first grade children in fourteen primary schools in Jamaica. Grade and environmental differences in reading interests were determined by the use of a 2x3 chi-square test.