Stages in development of a schoolchild as the reader are described. By means of a method of age and historical projections the author reveals dominant features in the attitude of schoolchildren to the work of literature: naive realism (IV-VI form), moral self-absorption (VII-VIII form), comprehension of social-esthetical causes and consequences (IX-X form). Different spheres of the reader's perception (emotions, imagination, comprehension of the content and of the esthetical form of the piece of literature) appear in the process of ontogenetical evolution not at the same time and manifestly depend on the type of the reader ("artist", "thinker", "neutral"). Individual peculiarities of perception however do not abolish trends characteristic of each stage in the development of the reader.