Browsing the NCTE bookstalls at the convention last year, I spied a new book by Deborah Appleman, Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literacy Criticism to Adolescents (New York: Teachers College Press, 2000). Ha, I thought, right. Adolescents and phallologocentrism. Or semiotics. They'd love that. I remembered once mentioning literary criticism to a class of "average" juniors. Kyle, folded into his desk, looked at me with complete incredulity: "You mean people write books about other people's books?!" Yes, I assured him. He still looked disbelieving.