This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) effects of creative drama instruction on the story grammar knowledge of field-dependent and field-independent primary grade students; (2) a content assessment of trade books preferred by children in transescence; (3) uses of the daily newspaper in the curriculum of elementary and secondary schools; (4) suicide in books for children age 11 through 14; (5) the treatment of childhood in autobiographies of twentieth century American women; (6) the effectiveness of bibliotherapy on changing fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students' attitudes toward the elderly; (7) children's selection preferences based on the color, size, and thickness of books; (8) young adult novels as television films; (9) the role of the American father as revealed in selected fiction books for children in the elementary grades; (10) native literature in junior and senior high school programs; and (11) children's perceptions of story content as elicited by three modes of presentation--the storyteller, the reader, and the sound slide show. (HOD)