The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sustained silent reading (SSR) on first graders' word recognition and reading interests. The pretest and posttest nonequivalent group experimental method was adopted. Fifty-six 1^(st) graders in an elementary school in Penghu County served as participants and were divided into the experimental group and the control group. Twenty-eight students in the experimental group received sustained silent reading. Twenty-eight students in the control group didn't receive sustained silent reading. This study took sixteen weeks, five days per week, and one ten-minute session each day. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The experimental group scores on word recognition did not have significantly different with the control group. (2) The experimental group scores on reading interests were higher than the control group. (3) Students in the experimental group had positive attitude toward the sustained silent reading. (4) The parents had positive attitude toward the sustained silent reading.