This text provides a developmental perspective of literacy learning as a way to understand the literacy process. The authors describe how children become skilled readers through the following five stages of the literacy growth process: emergent reading, initial reading, transitional, basic literacy, and refinement. Unlike most other literacy books which are organized by topic, this text addresses such specific topics like word identification and comprehension within the larger framework of literacy development. Additionally, the authors emphasize helping teachers foster positive attitudes towards reading, promoting extensive reading experiences and reading for meaning; these instructional goals transcend and bind the stages into an integrated process.