Fiction has immense benefits for children. It has powerful and positive effects on children’s language development, and also provides them with access to a limitless world of artistry and imagination and to vicarious experience, which is both extensive and complex.The purpose of this book is to provide both a rationale and a strategy for the use of fiction in primary schools. A policy framework for fiction is described, and ways in which stories can be appropriately used in teaching and learning in the classroom are proposed. A range of practical ideas for classroom work with specific novels and stories is suggested.The National Curriculum requires that children “develop as enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers.” This book will prove a valuable resource for that purpose.