The American family has undergone many changes in the last 20 years, due to divorce, death, or separation of parents, parents who have never married, and mothers who work. To determine how well school reading materials reflect the changing American family, seven basal reader series for grades four, five, and six were studied. Three random family stories from each book were examined. Family situations were categorized as (1) two-parent families, (2) one-parent families, (3) significant adults, and (4) siblings. Instances in which no mention was made of the family and those referring to the mother's working status were also recorded. The results showed that the number of times that many of the family situations were depicted reflected statistics of the population as a whole; however, there was no mention of stepparents, only one mention of the noncustodial parent, and few references to working mothers. (The survey form, a list of basal readers used, and a tally of the surveyed stories are appended.) (HTH)