This text is not a comprehensive volume or an in-depth study, but an overview written to shed light on children's literature and its use with young readers. Our job as teachers, whether university or elementary, is to introduce and illuminate children's books for our students. These books can offer insight, comfort, pleasure, and growth without having to be explained or used as objects of study. Yet some comment, if it is secondary to the books and does not become too self-important, can help teachers and children alike find their own ways to good reading. - Preface.