Not so long ago, a list of the issues that surrounded the selection of texts for elementary classrooms would not have been be a very long one. First, until approximately the mid1980s, the majority of books occupying classroom space were selected by someone other than the teacher and children-whether by a superintendent, a state board of education, a local school board, a textbook selection committee, or some combination of these (Farr, Tulley, & Powell, 1987), And although that decision-making process itself could be somewhat rancorous, once the texts were installed in classrooms, they tended to enjoy a peaceful (if not bland) term of adoption.