The subjects were 72 black and 72 white second-grade children, with an equal number of boys and girls in each racial group. Two sets of the same twelve stories from one edition of a basal reader were used, one set featuring illustrations of white characters and the other black characters. Each child was read three story pairs by a white adult and an equal number by a balck adult. After each pair of stories was read, the child selected the story which he or she preferred. The conclusions were: (1) the children were aware of the race of the character illustrating the stories and preferred characters of their own race; (2) they did not discriminate in their selection according to sex differences; and (3) the race of the reader was not an influential factor in the preference of the children. Guidelines are suggested for future studies on this and related topics. (Author/LL)