This collection of essays aims to encourage high school students to improve their reading skills. The essays offer numerous practical teaching ideas for helping students increase their vocabulary and comprehension as well as learn to love the medium of books. Useful ideas revolve around issues such as: guided reading; independent reading; making authentic reading-writing connections; literature circles; reading intervention; reading aloud; vocabulary exploration; mentoring; and picture books in high school. Following a foreword, "Welcome to the Planet of the Readers" (John S. Mayher), essays in the collection are: (1) "Reading in High School English Classes: An Overview" (Bonnie O. Ericson); (2) "Word Matters: Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in Meaningful Ways" (Janet S. Allen); (3) "A Literary Transfusion: Authentic Reading-Writing Connections" (John Gaughan); (4) "An After-School Reading Intervention Program for Struggling Readers" (Linda L. Flammer); (5) "A Twelfth-Grade Reading Class for Struggling Readers" (Susan Schauwecker); (6) "If You Build It, They Will Come: A Book Flood Program for Struggling Readers in an Urban High School" (Jeff McQuillan with Jeannie Beckett, Lupe Gutierrez, Matthew Rippon, Sue Snyder, Doug Wager, Gregg Williams, and Eydie Zajec); (7) "Students Becoming Real Readers: Literature Circles in High School English Classes" (Sandra Okura DaLie); (8) "By Any Other Name: Reconnecting Readers in the High School" (Teri S. Lesesne and Lois Buckman); (9) "The Place of Young Adult Literature in Secondary Reading Programs" (Lois T. Stover); and (10) "Picture Books in the High School English Classroom" (Carolyn Lott). An afterword "Future Directions for Reading in High School" by Leila Christenbury, concludes the book. (Each paper contains references.) (NKA)