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A study investigated the degree to which the page layout of a book affects the young reader's association of text with appropriate illustrations. Four hundred native French-speaking third-graders in eight Montreal (Canada) schools participated. In a third-grade text about animals, the names of the animals illustrated in pictures and other words were omitted from eight paragraphs and replaced by blanks. Eight versions of the booklet were made with different layouts of illustrations and text, some regularly and some irregularly pairing text with illustration. Subjects were required to read the texts and fill in the blanks. Responses were compared with the words in the original text and examined for correspondence or confusion with the nearby illustrations. It was found that comprehension was best on the version in which the pictures were on the page facing the text. Comprehension was also good for layouts in which text and illustration were both on right-hand pages. Sequence (i.e., picture following text or picture preceding text) had a much less significant effect on comprehension. Some additional comprehension effects were found to occur according to layout. (MSE)