Two basic approaches to teaching children to appreciate literature at any level are the structural (traditional literary analysis) and the reader response approaches. Structural analysis provides the terms and concepts that help readers interpret and discuss literature, while reader response emphasizes the integrated experience an individual has with a text, with the reader's personal response having primacy over formal knowledge of textual characteristics. For children, encounters with literature should retain characteristics of play, children's most natural activity. As they encounter more varied literature, children must make decisions such as setting purposes for themselves and modifying reading strategies in accordance with the possibilities within a text. (Thirteen references are attached.) (JK)