The two complementary questions--"What does literature do to young readers?" and "Can literature be taught?"--are not easily answered. Youth should not employ literature as an exclusive guide to life since they will encounter numerous unrealistic situations. Instead, literature should entice them to deal vicariously with vivid, new experiences and thus to feel themselves more deeply immersed in life. They should experience new responses and begin to develop their imaginations and critical abilities. If literature can be taught, children should first be taught to listen to the story as a whole and then to participate actively in literature through such creative dramatics as pantomime and play acting. As the children's own awareness and the story develop together, they become readers (or listeners), then performers, and finally dreamer-creators. (LH)