The artice aims to summarize research ino the use of children's literature in foreign language learning and teaching, drawing mainly on German monographies and articles in English, French and Russian as a foreign language and German as a second language and international publications on German as a foreign language issued over the past twenty-five years. It recounts the arguments for and against the use of children's literature in the foreign language classroom, the criteria for the selection of texts and the uses of children's literature in different areas of language learning and teaching with special emphasis on creative writing, reading and cultural studies.