This literature review examines selected variables that may influence teachers' ability to read books to preschool and elementary deaf children in total communication programs. The paper explores the role of signs in reading stories and factors influencing the signability of stories, including reading rate, length of sentences, length of text used to express a thought, imagery qualities of words, complexity and concreteness or abstractness of a passage, ease of articulating words in signs, literary style of reading, and stories that include a play on words. Strategies for reading to young deaf children are listed, including: make liberal use of animated signing; overview selected vocabulary prior to reading; read the same book over and over again; associate signs with print; read at a comfortable pace; help children draw upon their own experiences to understand stories better; allow students to select books they want to have read to them; read what is written; and translate stories to American Sign Language. (42 references) (JDD)