Reading Without Nonsense, in its third edition, remains a helpful, refreshing, and humanistic antidote to the managed "systems" approach to reading instruction. The theme of Frank Smith’s scholarly yet readable classic–that reading must make sense to the learner, and so must reading instruction–has made it one of the most important educational books of the past decade. This revised and expanded edition has been thoughtfully restructured to provide separate (and updated) chapters on: phonics and meaningful reading • comprehension and learning • the act and the range of reading • teaching reading and "reading disabilities." A chapter on reading in the electronic age has been added, together with clarified and expanded sections on the insights that literacy learners require, on the differences between spoken and written language, and on learning to read by reading.

The underlying learner-friendly teacher-supportive approach that characterized the previous editions remains unchanged. Dr. Smith notes that the research and debate of the past 10 years, though often acrimonious, have done nothing to undermine this book’s account of the basic nature of reading and of learning to read.

Chapters: Making Sense of Reading • Reading–From Behind the Eyes • Problems and Possibilities of Memory • Phonics • Meaning • Comprehension and Our Theory of the World • Learning Through Comprehension • Reading Letters, Words, and Meaning • The Scope of Reading • Learning to Become a Reader • The Teachers Role • Labels and Fables • Reading in the Electronic Age

(For sale in the U.S., its territories and dependencies, the Philippines, and Canada only)