Barbara Kiefer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University where she teaches courses in Reading and Children�s Literature. Originally trained in art education, she taught grades 1-5 in several regions of the U.S. and in overseas schools. She has served as chair of the Elementary Section Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English and as a member of the NCTE Executive Board and was a member of the 1988 Caldecott Award Committee of the American Library Association. She has also served as chair of the NCTE/CLA notable Trade Books in the Language Arts committee and the Children�s Book Council/International… Reading association Joint Committee. She has published articles and book chapters about reading and children�s literature. She is the author of THE POTENTIAL OF PICTUREBOOKS: From Visual Literacy to Aesthetic Understanding, the co-author of AN INTEGRATED LANGUAGE PERSEPCTIVE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL with Christine Pappas and Linda Levstik and the sixth and seventh editions of Huck et al.: CHILDREN�S LITERATURE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.