ABSTRACT
It has been argued that important hypotheses or understandings about literacy are facilitated in young children through book-reading experiences with adults (Holdaway, 1979; Morrow, 1988; Pappas, 1993; Sulzby & Teale, 1991; Wells, 1985, 1986). How the parent or teacher asks questions or directs the child’s attention to aspects of the books being shared is a major way by which emergent and beginning readers construct their early
ideas about both the language and the conventions of books (CochranSmith, 1984; Heath, 1982; Ninio & Bruner, 1978; Panofsky, 1994; Snow, 1983; Wells, 1986; Yaden, Smolkin, & Conlon, 1989).
