This handbook has been developed to assist school districts in the adoption of textbooks. The criteria for establishing a textbook selection process are included, as well as selection criteria for specific subject areas. Procedural steps are initially outlined for preliminary activities, book examination procedure, and implementation, and then a set of generic textbook evaluation criteria is provided, covering publishers and authors, objectives, content, organization/scope and sequence, teaching and learning strategies, evaluation procedures, component parts, physical characteristics, and total cost. Next, specific criteria are provided for the following subject areas: (1) mathematics, (2) social studies, (3) reading, (4) English (elementary), (5) health, and (6) science. Finally, a checklist is provided for analyzing readability. (TE)