This study compared the development of storybook reading in 15 kindergartners from working class homes to that of kindergartners from middle class homes studied by Sulzby (1985). Nine girls and six boys from two kindergartens in a small, rural town in British Columbia, Canada, participated. Kindergarten teachers used a holistic approach to literacy acquisition and emphasized storybook reading in class; children took library books home at least once a week. In October and June, individual children were asked to select a favorite book from the classroom collection and "read" it to the researcher. The researcher audiotaped the storybook reenactment and made notes regarding the children's behavior. Audiotapes were transcribed, coded, and scored on an 11-point scale ranging from labeling and commenting to reading independently, developed by Barnhart (1991) and based on Sulzby's scheme. Mean scores for the October retellings were significantly lower in this study than in Sulzby's study. All children in this study scored in the "oral language like" or "picture governed-story not formed" categories, whereas half the children in Sulzby's study scored in the "print governed" and "written language like" categories. The gap between the two groups widened at the June retelling, due to substantial score increases from October to June in Sulzby's study and little increase in the present study. Only one child in the present study advanced to print governed categories, in comparison to 17 of the 24 children in Sulzby's study. Critics of a "one size fits all" approach to literacy acquisition (Reyes, 1992) argue that many educators, while attempting to help all children acquire literacy, have adopted ethnocentric views of literacy development which reflect a western middle class bias. The results of this study suggest that educators need to examine some of the assumptions that they have made in this regard. (Contains 25 references, and 3 tables.) (KDFB)