This unique text takes the reader inside the workings of children's literature, focusing on ways in which literature elicits responses from young readers, genre by genre and book by book.

The text provides a full range of thoughtful and practical suggestions for sharing and exploring literature with children. Thus, there is a natural connection between the presentation and exploration of good books for children (including more than 2,000 annotations) and the rich repertoire of reader-response-based techniques. This connection prepares the reader not only to choose good literary works for children, but to understand their dynamics and be able to engage young readers.

Emphasizing literature as a key element of the reading curriculum, this edition ends with a new chapter on teaching both literary and literature-based content units.