The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of prescribed literature on the reader's self-reliance. The subjects were 36 sixth grade children from the ages of eleven to thirteen. Pretest and posttest measures of self-reliance were made by the California Test of Personality and the Teacher Rating Scale. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: bibliotherapy, recreational reading, or control. The bibliotherapy group was given prescribed literature intended to promote greater self-reliance. The recreational reading group had released time for recreational reading. The control group did not have either any prescribed literature or released time for recreational reading. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the groups' self-reliance scores on the posttest measures. (WR)