Becoming a reader : the experience of fiction from childhood to adulthood / J.A. Appleyard

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-218) and index

-- Mapping the terrain -- Reader-oriented theory -- Reading and psychological development -- Five roles readers take -- Part I: Early childhood: the reader as player -- The young child's world -- The cognitive account of fantasy -- The affective power of fantasy -- Fantasy, play, and trust -- Part II: Later childhood: the reader as hero and heroine -- The young reader's world -- What children read -- Narrative structure: cognitive aspects -- Narrative structure: affective aspects -- Character -- Fiction and information: two points of view -- A process of growth -- A note on sex roles -- Part III: Adolescence: the reader as thinker -- An adolescent's world -- What adolescents read -- Involvement and identification -- Realism -- Thinking -- Reading and studying literature -- Part IV: College and beyond: the reader as interpreter -- Two students reading -- The transparent text -- The problematic text -- The intelligible text -- The text theorized -- Irony -- Part V: Adulthood: the pragmatic reader -- Elizabeth -- adulthood -- The uses of reading -- Escaping -- Searching for truth -- Discovering usable images