Good starter book?

[Buckeye Princess]

We've had our Canon Rebel Xti for about 3.5 years now. I've never really read anything, just played around with it and gotten ok with the basic basics. But I want to take my skills to the next level. I mostly take pictures of our two kids. I am tired of paying a fortune for professional photographers and want to be able to do this myself.

Can anyone recommend a good book to start? Perhaps one that would be especially helpful with children's portraits?

[JoeDif]

If you are looking for a book to help you understand how the relationship of aperture, shutter speed and ISO work to make properly exposed photos then I'd suggest Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

He also has a book called Beyond Portraiture that is a good source of info on people photography.