This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 29 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) science fiction in elementary school science education; (2) the portrayal of black characters in children's literature; (3) UFOs and their correlates as a folkloric theme; (4) American autobiography; (5) children's picture story book reviews; (6) Chicano adolescent literature; (7) interpersonal cognitive complexity as related to the character perceptions, literary response preferences, story comprehension, and literary attitudes of adolescent readers; (8) young children's verbal responses to literature in parent-child story time interactions; (9) hyperbole in children's literary development; (10) the role of the teacher as depicted in American and Japanese literature for children and younger adolescents; (11) cultural parameters in stories containing characters with Hispanic names in Texas elementary school readers; (12) children's developing use and understanding of literary conventions in their story reading and writing; (13) characterization of the Anglo-American male in realistic and adolescent fiction; and (14) the child as depicted in English children's literature from 1780 to 1820. (HOD)