Schools bring people together. Yet for many children there are major discontinuities between their lives in and out of school and such differences impact on literacy teaching and learning in both predictable and unpredictable ways. However if schools were reconceptualised as meeting places, where different people are thrown together (Massey, 2005)…

Reports that a negative correlation was found between critics' opinions of children's books in the years 1950 through 1975 and children's current reactions to the books. Explores some differences between the reactions of the critics and the child readers; lists a number of books for each year studied and indicates their status with critics and…

Explores a preschooler's repeated attraction to two books, and what it means in terms of the child's literacy before she learns to read. Describes the child's advancing critical skills. (HTH)

Presents the responses of three fifth-grade students to two current children's novels to show how popular literature and personal response can provide teachers with insights about the literary understanding of their students. (HTH)