The purpose of this action research project was to study the global and multicultural and multiethnic attitudes and awareness (knowledge) of 23 third graders before and after they had been taught primarily through reading and interacting with children's literature. The data were collected by pre- and post-attitude and knowledge tests and surveys, student interviews, class discussions, student and teacher journal responses to and about the literature, book discussion comments, and teacher observations. After the treatment, much knowledge was gained and attitudes toward multicultural groups were more positive. While this was expected, it might have been that students would have become more ethnocentric, thinking that their way of life was superior to another group's way of life. They may have distanced themselves from the groups that they were reading about. In actuality, many times the students said and wrote statements about how the literature affected their positive attitudes. Based on the results from this research, the knowledge and attitudes that students have about different cultural and societal groups is affected positively through their interaction with the literature. One diagram, 1 graph, 1 pie chart, and 8 tables are included; 34 appendices and 9 bibliographies are attached. (Contains 70 references.)