Providing a developmental perspective of literacy learning as a way to understand the literacy process, this book describes how children become skilled readers through the following five stages of the literacy growth process: emergent reading, initial reading, transitional, basic literacy, and refinement. Unlike most other literacy books which are organized by topic, this book addresses such specific topics like word identification and comprehension within the larger framework of literacy development. Additionally, it emphasizes helping teachers foster positive attitudes towards reading, promoting extensive reading experiences, and reading for meaning; these instructional goals transcend and bind the stages into an integrated process. Each chapter includes structured overviews, key terms, and summaries. A new prologue focuses on "reading wars," the current conflicts about reading instruction. Chapters in the book are: (1) Emergent Reading Stage; (2) Initial Reading Stage; (3) Transitional Stage; (4) Basic Literacy Stage; (5) Vocabulary Development; (6) Effective Reading of Texts; (7) Study Strategies; (8) Refinement Stage; (9) Refinement Stage: Content Area Reading; (10) Assessment; (11) Organization and Management; (12) Ms. Stein's First Grade: A Literature-Based Program; (13) Mr. Gordon's Fourth Grade: Using Basal Readers; and (14) Instructing Readers with Differences. Appendixes contain an informal assessment of study strategies; the O'Donnell/Wood Informal Assessment of Elementary Reading; and the Gorham (ME) Schools' Literacy Guide. (RS)