A thought-provoking paper on reading as one of the formative environmental influences on children. Trevi makes some intriguing comparisons, for instance between reading and play. He quotes and reviews an extensive literature on the subject. Amongst his many points one can select the differing use children make of their reading matter from early school age to late adolescence; the effect of pre-adolescent defence mechanisms on such phenomena as the non-reader, and the place of reading in the identity crisis of adolescence.