ABSTRACT
Teaching nonfiction as literature, using a response approach, works. Far too many teachers of literature—and, therefore, readers of literature—believe that reading is a passive act. In that view, a reader opens a book as one might open a package, reaches down into it, and pulls out what the author put there. Therefore, some readers who are careful and perceptive get most or all of what is there to get and get it more or less accurately. Others do not. But all are mining for the gold that the author has deposited, all that and nothing but that. It is not important or even desirable that student readers agree with the teacher’s view of the work or with that of critics or textbook editors. Nonfiction, despite the negative quality of its name, may well be the most popular form of literature for today’s young readers.
