ABSTRACT
How many times have children heard the injunction, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything”? The underlying social convention seems to find its way into classroom “book talk,” which almost invariably demands—explicitly or implicitly—a favorable stance towards the text. This expectation that students’ evaluations of text will be complimentary is reinforced by teachers’ familiarity with publishers’ catalogues and lists of “best bets” and recommended titles.
