Politics and children's literature would seem to be two areas of thought which are incompatible; politics being the administration of power, control, government, and regulation, and children's literature embodying the freedom of the imagination at a period in life described as "literary innocence." Embedded political perspectives, whether religious, social, or gender based, affect the selection and availability of children's literature. The paper discusses the following issues and their political effects on children's literature: the nature of the publishing industry; opportunities for new writers; marketing trends; foreign children's books and related language and cultural translation issues; matching of illustrations with text; independent book production units; book selection; government reading lists; school library funding and quality of maintenance; and the lack of ability for children to make their own reading selections. The paper also describes a pilot research study which looked at the way 5- to 6-year-old and 10- to 11-year-old children select books, their knowledge about books, and what qualities they value and like in books. The dream is a democratic approach to book selection, and giving children a voice in the complex world of children's literature. (SWC)