Fifty picture storybooks found on the 1979 Classroom Choices list (a compilation of children's favorite titles) were analyzed to find out what structural characteristics children preferred. A taxonomy developed by Gayle Palmer and Jadzia Nakonechny was used to categorize the books. The analysis reveals the following children's preferences: books in which main characters confront a problem and seek a solution; plots that are episodic, revealing the stories incident by incident; plots that focus on characters with different points of view or characters who experience the same thing in contrasting ways; fantasy as the preferred genre, followed by realistic fiction and folktales; books that give animals human qualities; books that contain humorous characters and situations; and books by Tomie De Paola, who has had more books on the Classroom Choices list during 1978 and 1979 than any other author/illustrator. (RL)