This article from the Journal of Early Childhood Research presents findings of a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the effects of a volunteer mentoring program on reading outcomes among struggling readers aged eight to nine years. The trial involved children from 50 primary schools who received two 30-minute mentoring sessions per week from volunteer mentors that involved paired reading activities. The evaluation showed that the program was effective in improving decoding skills, reading rate, and reading fluency. However, no evidence was found of the program having an effect on reading comprehension or reading confidence and enjoyment of reading. The findings make an important contribution to the existing evidence in this area, and show that mentoring programs that use non-specialist volunteers, rather than teachers or highly trained mentors, can be effective in improving some core reading, but may be less effective in improving reading comprehension.