A study examined the practitioner's perspective of literature and how literature is being used in the classroom. Teachers, librarians, and administrators at a suburban school serving over 700 children from kindergarten through fifth grade were interviewed, and professional journals directed toward practitioners, published curriculum guides, and books about children's literature written for teachers were examined. Findings indicated that the observed classroom and curricular uses of literature focused on helping students develop a love of reading and developing reading proficiency by reading, but that these activities emphasized developmental curriculum the least. The lower grades, using a whole language approach, showed more evidence of a developmental curricular focus. Findings indicated that the commonly occurring literature curriculum objectives of exposure to different literary genres and the recognition of the use of literary forms and devices were not evident in the classroom and that professional materials had limited influence on the practitioner. (RS)