Kathy G. Short

The textbook industry is quickly becoming anachronistic; do we really need all of this information compiled between two covers and sold to debt-straddled students at outlandish prices? There is, I shit you not, an Appendix listing all of the awards given to YA books, information that can be Googled in 5 seconds.

My main issue is that the authors of textbooks are really just assembling information from elsewhere, which anyone with an internet connection can do on their own. This goes for textbooks in secondary schools as well. Let's read more primary source documents, original research, and rhetorical essays, and fewer expository tomes that are seemingly just a cash cow for publishers and authors.

Two stars because _Essentials_ is readable and the subject matter is inherently engaging. There is some good stuff about choice and lit circles towards the end, as well as other instructional strategies. If this was the focus of the book I would have rated it higher.… (mehr)