Examines a young girl's abridgment of Mara Kay's novel "Masha," focusing on the selection processes she used. Suggests that text selected for the abridgment had personal significance, while less significant or negative text was omitted. Concludes that the experience gave shape and meaning to the girl's own growing up. (MM)

Discusses (1) the possibility of children developing meaningful lives, (2) literature as a way of understanding children's lives, and (3) the importance of understanding children's consciousness and how this might be done. (SRT)

Discusses three major elementary curricula thrusts and three nearly equally influential areas of major concern that characterized the author's stewardship of the National Council of Teachers of English. (HTH)

Records the attempts of a very young child to construct his own understanding of what it means to die and of the social impact of death within his own culture. Includes transcripts in which the child uses narrative to frame his first, tentative ideas about death and responds to literature to further extend his understanding. (JD)

Discusses classroom literary practices related to teacher questioning, retelling, literalism, and figurative language for children in the concrete operational stage; concludes that recent research on response to literature may say as much about what children are taught to do as what they do developmentally. Offers suggestions about teaching…