This is a wonderful classic book that deserves to be better known, and should be essential reading for anyone doing research on young children, literacy, and children's literature. The Cragos kept painstaking records of their daughter Anna's interactions with and responses to books from ages one to five. That so few other researchers and/or parents have followed in their footsteps is testimony to the difficulty of this task, but the Cragos provides an excellent model for anyone who would like to engage in similar research. Not only did her parents record Anna's responses, they were able to organize these responses into useful categories.

Prelude to Literacy will fascinate both parents and teachers ofinfants and preschoolers, as well as students of Children's Litrature.

Maureen and Hugh Crago write about their daughter's contacts with books between the ages of one and five. They discuss such details as the way Anna learned to read pictures, and her understanding of the conventions of narrative. There are verbatim records of reading sessions with her, as well as notes on her developing responses to specific books over time.

Anna's first encounter with Sendak's famous Where the Wild Things Are, at two, is illuminating, and the depth of her understanding of Max's emotions over the next five months, will surprise many people.

She was only three and a half when she fell in love with Tove Jansson's Moomins, and listened to Finn Family Moomintroll in its entirety. She enjoyed Jansson's exotic characters, as well as the action. Away from the book reading sessions, Anna acted out the characters and quoted from the book: '"Bless my tail" said Anna as she sat down at the table.'(p.46).

The Cragos taped almost all of the reading sessions with Anna, and the transcriptions are quoted throughout the book. It is full of the delicious conversation and story-making of the preschooler. Here is part of a long monologue told to the pages of an adult book on childbirth, with few pictures: 'Ït was a beautiful day next day, so she just went out and picked apples, and played in the grass and picked up the grass to make a hat, and made the cushions outside, ... and took all the house away to another house, and ate the plants in her mother's garden, and did so many naughty and nasty and nice things that she couldn't bear it. Then she went back inside and telled her mother all the damage."(p.135).

There are also chapters on Anna's perception of humour - "Funny Ha-Ha and Funny Peculiar"; on her understanding of fantasy - "The Limits of Reality"; and "Heros and Villans" is about the emotional impact of the stories.

Very young children are often underestimated in their ability to understand and responnd to stories and pictures - and in their cognitive abilities generally. Prelude to Literacy celebrates the developing intellect and language of the very young child.