The 21 essays in this collection consider the conditions under which reading is most effectively taught and learned. Topics deal with the ways in which a desire to read can be "caught" by children in their early years; the case for humanistic education; the need for changes in people's attitudes toward learning and teaching; ways of conceptualizing and testing reading readiness; characteristics of effective reading instruction; nurturing the root experiences of reading; the significance of children's choices in literature; the value of introducing children to poetry; bilingual/multicultural education; reading in the bilingual classroom; the problems of illiteracy in West Africa; concepts of learning based on cross-cultural research; the child's conception of the alphabet; the development of accurate instruments for testing in reading; the creation of a community-based reading center; teaching autistic children; and early prediction of reading failure. (GW)