Contrary to the popular assumption that television viewing is a very different process from book reading and inhibits reading in a variety of ways, the author argues that in fact the two activities can be mutually supportive and involve many of the same strategies. It may have implications for teachers as the book offers a research-based view and calls for a new emphasis in school practice which will include television as text and which supports children's developing abilities to make meaning from a range of texts. The author highlights the need for teachers to consider television in the same way as print media.

Muriel Robinson spent ten years teaching in Inner London primary schools before moving to the University of Brighton to work in initial and inservice teacher education. Her current teaching includes English and media studies, and she is researching the structure and cultural significance of house music as a language form. She is an avid consumer of narratives of all kinds.

List of Transcription Symbols -- Preface -- Chapter 1 -- Everyday Discourses about Children, Television and Reading -- Chapter 2 -- How Do We Read? -- Chapter 3 -- Language. Thought, Culture and Narrative -- Chapter 4 -- Making Sense of the Text in the World -- Chapter 5 -- The Expectations Children Have when Reading -- Chapter 6 -- Personal Response to the Texts -- Chapter 7 -- The Text as a Source of Meaning -- Chapter 8 -- Using Information from Outside the Text -- Chapter 9 -- Children Reading Print and Television -- Bibliography -- Appendix - List of Transcripts -- Index.