Prepared for teachers, school administrators, parents, and other members of the interested public, this summary of Marilyn Jager Adams'"Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print" selects from the complex and extensive body of research in the book to present a more direct but much less detailed account of useful, research-based information on beginning reading. Both the book and the summary review, evaluate, and integrate information from the fields of cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, education, linguistics, computer science, and anthropology. Chapters in the summary include: (1) "Words and Meanings: From an Age-Old Problem to a Contemporary Crisis"; (2) Research about Readers: Two Perspectives"; (3) "Preparing Young Children to Read"; (4) "Moving into Reading"; and (5) "Words and Meaning: Toward a Resolution." Nineteen pages of references and notes are attached. (RS)