Reviews of research, studies of early readers, and investigations of emergent literacy uniformly conclude that parents' beliefs, aspirations, and actions affect their children's growth into and embracing of literacy. However, conflicting results call into question the utility of simply correlating race or various socioeconomic factors, such as parental level of education or family income, with reading achievement. Research indicates that parents of successful readers: (1) want their children to succeed; (2) impart a sense of the importance of education and high expectations to their children; (3) impart a love of reading and a sense of the value of reading to their children; (4) like, enjoy, and respect their children and are willing to spend time, money, and effort to nurture their literacy; (5) believe in the adage "the parent is the child's first teacher"; (6) know what is going on in their children's school and literacy lives; (7) believe that they can have an impact on their children's literacy development; (8) tend to provide literacy artifacts, especially children's materials, in their homes; (9) read to their children often; (10) serve as role models as readers themselves; and (11) provide effective literacy interactions which assist their children in learning how to construct meaning from text and to interact successfully in school settings. The parental role in the development of children who both can and will read is enormous. (Fifty-three references are attached.) (RS)