This unique collaboration between a literary critic (Peter J. Rabinowitz) and a high school English teacher (Michael W. Smith) provides readers with a rich discussion of a central paradox faced by literature teachers: Can teachers claim to have taught well if their students have not learned to recognize (and respect) the ways authors expect them to read? But at the same time, shouldn't students be taught the critical skills of resisting both what authors expect and what teachers see as the right reading? Though each of the authors has a some-what different view, they show that "authorial reading" is not only compatible with but essential to progressive teaching and truly engaged readers.