BOTH THE COLLEGE INSTRUCTOR of biology or genetics and the high school teacher seeking a good reference on genetics for the school library face a difficult task. How does one select from among the many textbooks available the right one for the situation? Numerous parameters enter into making a wise decision. Among these are the intellectual level at which the book is written, its length, its cost, the quality and number of its illustrations, its pedagogical style, and its readability. The following questions reflect other considerations: Is the book to be used for classroom instruction or is it to serve as a reference? Is the book authoritative and current? Does it reflect the present state of the discipline? The selection of a genetics textbook is complicated by the rapid expansion and evolution of the discipline and by the plethora of textbooks available. Some of these books are intended for use in introductory college-level courses in general genetics (table 1); others are human genetics textbooks (table 2), which emphasize the unique aspects of the genetics of Homo sapiens and the universal principles of genetics as they relate to humans. Still other textbooks are science and approaches to the discipline, which are useful in courses designed for nonmajor students especially interested in the impact of genetics on society (table 3). Textbooks in each of these categories have their own target audience and their own special uses. For this review, however, we chose to restrict our evaluation to thirteen books (table 1) intended for, or often used as, textbooks for introductory genetics courses for biology majors. We further restricted our evaluation to books published from 1975 to 1979. We recognize that