Satire appears to be one of the least attractive forms of humorous literature because many readers feel it encompasses negative and ill-mannered comic devices. By virtue of the fact that satire is not considered polite literature, it rarely makes its way into the planned literary curricula until students enter high school English courses. In this light, a study was conducted to examine the responses of students in grades four and seven to satire as reflected in selected contemporary picture books in which meaning was dependent upon both text and illustrations. Each group heard the literary selections read aloud and then completed questionnaires. Each subject was then given a set of oral preference/rejection questions pertaining to all the literary selections. The results showed that (1) all students expressed an enjoyment of satire as a type of humorous literature; (2) students did not respond to the major themes within the selections and did not associate them with their own lives; (3) students were capable of responding in a critical rather than a merely literate manner and they gleaned a great deal of information from aspects revealed within the artwork of the books; and (4) students were capable of recognizing the associational characteristics of stereotyping, superiority, moralizing, distortion, scorn, and exaggeration, but did not comprehend the associational characteristics of sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, contempt, or derision. (HOD)