Nonfiction in a Read-Aloud Program.

■ In the last ten years, there has been a rebirth of interest in reading aloud to young people. Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook (1979) sold over one million copies and appeared in a 1989 revision, The New Read-aloud Handbook. Margaret Mary Kimmel and Elizabeth Segel's fine book For Reading Out Loud! (1988) is now also in its second edition. These missionaries of read-aloud point to the joy of sharing books with youngsters, the intimate bond it builds between parent and child, the sense of a community of readers it inspires in the classroom, and the educational benefits derived from the experience. Study after study shows that if youngsters are consistently read aloud to, they will improve their vocabulary as well as their reading comprehension, and that listening to fine books favorably affects students' reading interests and language development (McCormick, 1 977). Indeed, the highly quoted Becoming a Nation of Readers (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985) states that 'The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children (p. 23). Equally important as the educational advantages is the motivational benefit of reading aloud. When Mary Jett-Simpson surveyed 1 ,821 students for their reactions to specific reading motivation activities, she found that teacher reads aloud in an exciting voice was one of the most preferred (1980, p. 5). This positive response to teachers reading aloud is especially strong with middle school and high school adolescents who do not like to read or have trouble