The purposes of this study were to examine the diversity of the authors and illustrators in core reading series and to evaluate the opportunities and limitations of these texts in relation to the goals of multicultural education. The authors began their research concerned about whose stories are told in core reading series, and who gets to tell those stories. Buescher, Lightner and Kelly conducted a text analysis of four popular core reading series to determine the representation of gender and race of the authors and illustrators whose works are present in these series. Although diversity entails much more than just race and gender, the authors chose to focus on these two tenets because they are visible from the pictures of authors and illustrators printed along with the stories used in core reading series. This article examines the issues that are the basis of the research and presents the methodology and results of their analysis.