Three current basal reading series were examined to determine the racial and sexual characteristics of the main characters of the stories and in the illustrations. All of the textbooks from preprimer through the sixth grade level were included in the analysis of the Ginn; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; and Macmillan series. Eight-hundred sixteen main characters were counted in the 1975-77 editions of the three series. As each story was read the sex and race of the main character was noted. The five categories of race noted were: white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian. The total number of main characters was 816--329 females and 487 males. In every category except Hispanic, male main characters outnumbered female main characters. Three previous editions of the same series were examined to see if a shift had been made in the make up of the characters; there was a decrease of 204 in the total number of males and an increase of 104 in the number of females. When illustrations were analyzed according to the major figure, males again outnumbered females. (MKM)