The Purpose of Basals: What Children Think.

to her father the highlights of her day. After several weeks he was puzzled that she had never mentioned reading. After all, she loved books and spent a lot of time at home reading and being read to. On several occasions her fa ther asked if she had read any stories that day, only to receive a short, em phatic "no!" What was more puzzling was that Nicole often brought home an early level basal reader, which she always left in her bag. Finally, one day her fa ther grabbed the basal and said "I thought you hadn't been reading any stories at school?" Nicole turned and in a disgusted tone replied "Dad, you asked whether I'd read any stories. That's not a story, that's my reader." This language story is one of many which provided the motivation for the research project reported here. As a teacher and researcher I had frequently observed that children's views on read