While literacy is an important part of anyone's education, it should be noted that visual literacy, being able to view, interpret and react to visuals, is just as important for today's population. College students are reluctant at first to take the time to really examine a picture book, whereas youngsters go over and over their favorite books to see if there is anything new or different in the illustrations that they have overlooked. Childhood may allow for more time to spare on the essentials; college students, on the other hand, have full schedules of diverse demands. However, once college students begin to really examine art work, they do come away more satisfied with their abilities to judge the quality of the art work presented. The hope is that these college students will bring that literacy to their future elementary school students. In responding to illustrations, there are a number of areas of concentration: (1) color; (2) borders; (3) style; and (4) viewing distance. The style with which "Cinderella" is illustrated has a dramatic effect on the reader's understanding of the text. If in Susan Jeffer's "Cinderella," the heroine is beautifully, as she is traditionally taken to be, she is less than attractive, even frumpy, in Barbara Karlin's version of the classic, published in 1989. Similarly, Don Wood, illustrator of "Heckety Peg" (1987), creates an aura of goodness and light whenever the mother of the story is shown. (Contains 23-item bibliography.) (TB)