You Gotta be the Book

Through textured case studies of engaged and relectant readers, this text addresses the following issues: what do highly engaged, adolescent readers do as they read?; what is it about traditional schooling, reading instruction and literary instruction that deters engaged reading and serves to disenfranchise young readers?; how can interventions like dramatic and artistic responses to literature be used in classrooms to help all readers, especially reluctant ones, to take on the strategies and stances of more expert readers - and to reconceive of reading as a personally meaningful, pleasurable and productive pursuit? The work will serve as a supplemental text in graduate and undergraduate courses in language arts, reading and writing methods, and remedial reading. It should also be of use to teacher educators, special educators and parents.