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.