Contemporary children must deal with many family problems that children 20 years ago never had to face, including divorce, parental separation, death, working mothers, and economic status. To determine how well current basal reading series reflect the changing American family, the stories of four basal reading series for grades four, five, and six were analyzed and placed in the following categories: (1) sex of the main characters, (2) family structure, (3) economic status, and (4) type of story. The results showed that publishers have made an effort to eliminate sex discrimination, but that the largest percentage of main characters were still Caucasion, middle class children from intact families who live in houses in suburban or rural communities. The stories do not reflect current population statistics in the United States. (Results of the basal story analysis are appended.) (Author/MM)