A study examined the ways that basal readers portrayed the family. It was expected that the readers would give only token representation of both parents working or of one-parent or mixed marriage families, and that very few portrayals of reading or of reading materials would be found. Eight basal readers from 6 publishing companies for grades 1 through 3 were analyzed, resulting in 367 stories dealing with the family. The results indicated that the stories were about people of varied ethnic origins and dealt with various story settings in history as well as with different countries. Family settings were varied from city to the suburbs, with the latter portrayed in almost half the stories. Only 6% of the depicted families were one-parent families, and divorce was mentioned only once and alluded to twice; however, no story mentioned stepparents or stepchildren. The death of a parent was referred to twice, but occurred prior to the story. Children were seen reading in 32 stories, but parents were rarely found reading. The work world of these families was vague or nonexistent, and only nine stories portrayed both parents working in a two-parent family. (HTH)