Theme and Illustrations as Correlates of Literature Preferences among Nigerian Primary School Pupils

A random sample of 216 primary schoolchildren in Port Harcourt,Nigeria, was interviewed with a view to finding out the influence of theme and illustrations on their literature preferences. Results of the study indicated that children preferred books written by Nigerian authors with local themes to western books with alien themes. The influence of illustrations, however, seems to be dominant among primary 1 and 2 pupils (aged 5‐7 years) with a decreasing effect on primary 3 and 4 pupils (aged 7‐9 years) and a minimal effect on primary 5 and 6 pupils (aged 9‐11 years).