Asserting that books should be a vital part of children's lives from the earliest months, this publication provides guidelines to help parents, teachers, librarians, and others to select appropriate books for young children. Chapter 1 argues that using books will help to establish positive parent-child relationships and to ensure adequate language development and later reading skills. Chapter 2 focuses on reading with infants less than one year old, discussing board book selection, read-aloud sessions, alphabet and number books, and nursery rhymes. Chapter 3 concerns reading with one-year-olds, including access to books; distinguishing "naming,""theme," and "story" books; books describing everyday life; flap books; and rhythm and rhyme books. Chapter 4 describes typical 2-year-olds, discussing the role of books in providing experiences, bedtime stories, characteristics of appropriate stories, and illustrations. Chapter 5 focuses on 3-year-olds, and includes discussion of children's temperament, fairy stories, story collections, "Beginner Books," poetry, and repeated book reading. Chapter 6 pertains to 4-year-olds, including teaching children to select books and the growing interest in realism. Chapter 7, on 5-year-olds, discusses after-school story sessions to ease school entry, listening to stories without pictures, folk and fairy tales, books about other countries or religions, books picturing children from a variety of ethnic/racial groups, and reading skills. The book concludes by noting that children's books can be bridges between children and parents and between children and the world. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are followed by book lists with reviews of additional recommended books. (KB)