Here are some comments from reviewers about the Reader's Handbook for grades 6-8. Ruth Nathan from a November 27, 2001, email to members of CATENet, California Association of Teachers of English. See www.cateweb.org. Ruth Nathan, here, with a review of "Reader's Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning." As Jim Burke [moderator of CATENet] mentioned a few weeks ago, there's a new concept out there called "Reader's Handbook." The one I've seen is for middle school students, published by Great Source, and was co-authored by Laura Robb (main author) and Ron Klemp and Wendell Schwartz. All are experts in the field of reading, two teach middle level students currently (and the one who doesn't, did), all teach classes as the university level; and the handbook's main author, Laura Robb, has written some of the most outstanding books for middle school learners yet. Many CATENet listserv members know of Robb's books "Reading Strategies That Work" and "Easy Mini-Lessons for Building Vocabulary." I've favorably reviewed "Teaching Reading in Middle School," which is a powerhouse. Though Laura has done all this, few probably know of her book "Redefining Staff Development," which happens to be Heinemann's most useful book on the subject. What Laura seems to understand, fully, is that consultants can't just come and go; teachers can't be sent to workshops and just come back (no follow-up); and, importantly, that learning takes time. In her staff development book, learning with others seems a delight. I mention all this because the expertise of these authors-their combined knowledges-and the understandings brought to this book by the group that publishes the handbook for Great Source, work well for student learning. My review is in four parts: 1) What's in the handbook; 2) why what's in it is so useful; 3) my favorite features, and 4) how you might want to augment your book. 1) What's in the handbook? Reader's Handbook has twelve parts with a Reader's Almanac. (The "Almanac" is worth the cost of the book.) Readers will find specific sections on how to read textbooks, all types of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, drama, the internet, graphics, and so on. 2) Why what's in it is so useful: What's important is that the "tough stuff" isn't short-changed. For example, many students find reading textbooks impossible, or nearly so. What's at issue, in addition to typical problems that ONLY teachers can and should handle (more on that later), is the fact that textbooks use so many structures to make their points: typographic cues to the reader, such as boldfaced words, larger type for headings and subheadings; organizational constructs, such as the "preview," glossaries, and tables of contents; and all sorts of relevant graphics: charts, maps, and photos. The handbook section, "Elements of Textbooks" could be used so productively by middle school content teachers (including Language Arts teachers) at the beginning of the year as a point of departure for their classes. A simple look at the textbook one has to use (say, history), matched with the handbook entries, could help students jump-start their year. In addition, most content area teachers who teach in the 21st century use many nonfiction materials other than textbooks to supplement textbook use: books, chapters, magazine and newspaper articles. Most of these texts are of a basic type: essay, biography (and "auto"), newspaper or magazine article, and so on. Each of these needs to be read with knowledge of how they are constructed-form follows function-so why not let students in on this knowledge? Finally we have a book that does what content area teachers have yearned for, but not had the time to do: teach the kids how to read all this nonfiction prose. (If we take a look at the most recent Reading Research Quarterly, middle school students don't have practice reading nonfiction-at all.) Is it possible that the lament, "My kids can decode but they don't comprehend" won't need to be a reality? I would hope so. The book is also useful because of the way it's laid out. For example, take the chapter on reading math story problems. There's a four step plan: Read, Plan, Solve, and Check. While this is rather common in most middle school math textbooks, the Handbook shows reading strategies before, during, and after reading. In the "during reading" section, for example, students are shown how word problems are organized. In the "after reading" section, students are given useful tips: guess, check, and revise; work backward; use simpler numbers; work with a partner. And each tip is carefully detailed. The clear message in the "after reading" section is DON'T GIVE UP. Kids need this sort of talk. But, talk is cheap. This book explains. In addition to clear-overall layout, students will find before, during, and after suggestions are modeled with texts they can read supplemented by the authors modeling what to do! Forgive the exclamation, but this is VERY NICE--for kids. They can read what to do, and then see the authors do it. A student can see exactly where to look via squares for previewing strategies, and ovals for during reading strategies. Also, each chapter begins with goals and ends with a very simple "summing up." 3) Highly useful features of the Reader's Handbook. Every reviewer has his/her pet features of a book they think is good. Here are a few of mine. a). There's a "strategy handbook" at the back of the book which clearly shows each graphic organizer used in the text. This is nice, because a student could flip through this section and find an organizer to fit a specific article or chapter. Each organizer in the "strategy handbook" notes a page where the student can see it in action. b). The pages from articles, textbooks, chapters look like what kids see. c). I love the illustrations/cartoons: they're loaded with middle school kids' humor. The chapter on the Internet has a website: http://www.mys (which leaves open the interpretation: "myself" or "mystery"--both would work, yes?, for middle schoolers?; a "truth meter" for evaluating Internet sources, and so on. 4) How you might want to augment your book. a). Students will find it really useful to tab this handbook. While the page edges have a slight coloration, as with any text, little handles make life easier. I'm using Post-It Flags (available at all bookstores) for basic sections of the book. (top edge) b). I'm using smaller flags (all red) off side to indicate strategies I know I'll return to over and over again. Each is numbered. c). I'm taking it everywhere. That's it. Enjoy! (To order, go to the Reader's Handbook page on the Great Source website. I suspect that if you're a teacher and want to order these for your students, you might get a sample copy. You'll have to check this out.) For more information, contact us!