Ten reflections may be made regarding children's literature and its teaching. The reflections are as follows: (1) Teachers can make a profound difference in the lives of students and should attempt to do so. (2) Teachers of children's literature are a badly fragmented lot and need a common meeting ground where they can share their thinking. (3) The quality of children's literature has improved in recent years. (4) What was once the cottage industry of trade book publication is no more. Now that the publishing houses are owned by conglomerates whose chief concern is profitmaking, editors are prevented from taking risks in publishing books by unknown, promising authors. (5) Great publishing houses used to be known and respected for the quality of their backlists--but today backlists are becoming relics of the past. (6) The children's book publication, movie, and television industries are becoming more and more interconnected. (7) Increasing costs of publishing and increasing profit margins may affect the publication of children's books. (8) Television and film have dramatically influenced the form of children's books. (9) Basal systems that use literature as the basis of reading exercises pervert the essential purpose of literature--to entertain. (10) It appears that teachers may have failed to show students the importance of literature to the well-being of our culture. (GT)