The purpose of this study was to: (1) compare the book selection preferences of inner-city and suburban fourth and sixth grade children, and (2) determine if children consistently chose books according to categories of literature. Comparison of inner-city and suburban students of the same sex and reading level provided a control for sex and reading ability. The reading abilities were placed in three categories (below level, on level, and above level) and were determined by the grade placement score of the Iowa Basic Skills Test. On the ranking of books: (1) Fourth and sixth grade inner-city and suburban children showed a preference for the science fiction category. (2) The least preferred were books on suburban life and frontier and pioneer stories. (3) The inner-city group showed a preference for Negro fiction more than the suburban students. The Spearman rho was used to measure the degree of association between two variables. Out of 464 students participating, there were 36 correlations: six at each grade level for collection of data. The results of the study indicate no consistent relationship between the book selection preferences of inner-city and suburban children and that children do not choose books consistently according to categories. (GR)