A study compared the choices of Charlottesville area children with those from Children's Choice lists, published annually in "The Reading Teacher." Subjects, 62 third- to sixth-grade students, were interviewed before they checked books out of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Main Branch in Charlottesville, Virginia. Children were asked why they chose the books they did. The books on the 19 annual Children's Choice lists from 1975 to 1994 were analyzed by genre, and 12 categories were developed based on the analysis. The books selected by the children were recorded on a checklist. Results indicated that nonfiction informational books were the most frequently read books; contemporary realistic fiction was a distant second; and none of the Children's Choice lists were similar to the Charlottesville area children's selections across all of the categories. Results also indicated that the three most common reasons cited by the children for choosing the books were: (1) the book was exciting; (2) "you can learn something"; and (3) "it is fun." (Contains 22 references, 20 figures, and 4 tables of data.) (RS)