This book provides tools that black parents can use to make their children lifelong lovers of reading and writing. It is geared specifically to black children from the perspective of an educator and parent. The book stresses the need for early involvement in the learning process, challenging the traditional notion that issues surrounding child development and parent education are apolitical and neutral. It provides an historical framework that gives a firm foundation upon which to build an understanding of literacy as potentially emancipatory and empowering. The nine chapters are: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Black Child/U.S. School System"; (3) "Comprehending Language and Culture"; (4) "Infants, Toddlers, and Emergent Literacy"; (5) "The Preschool Reader and Writer"; (6) "Selecting a School"; (7) "Early Elementary School Readers and Writers"; (8) "The Older Child and Literacy Development"; and (9) "Of Special Concern: Reading Disability." Appended are: an annotated bibliography featuring exemplary adolescent and children's literature; the selection process for the list of suggested books; and a stereotypes worksheet. (Contains 56 bibliographic references.) (SM)