Children receive messages from many sources, including the printed word. It is generally assumed that they are less able than an adult to evaluate either the accuracy or the quality of a communication; and consequently, that children may be more readily influenced by messages than are adults. The number of trade books and textbooks printed annually has risen sharply over the last few decades, so that there are many messages available for study. In view of the influence and quantity of written communications for children, the process by which messages are transmitted to and modified for young readers should be comprehensively described. Nevertheless, although some research has dealt with content of materials, a few studies with censorship, and several others with children's response to literature, each phase has been investigated only in isolation. This study proposes a comprehensive model for communications research focusing upon printed messages published for juvenile audiences. The model is then applied to the specific case of world-future images in children's fiction. Suppose that we regard futurists as message originators and children as one group of receivers. Then authors and publishers may play roles as gatekeepers, those persons who screen communications between originators and recipients. We want to know whether the full range of alternative futures generated by futurists is reflected in the range of world-future images in children's literature. We want to know whether the gatekeepers of children's fiction modify worldfuture images so as to eliminate, or at least ameliorate, the harshest possibilities. These aspects of the proposed communications model are investigated in the present study.