Illustration: Alain Pilon
Susan Straight is a well-known novelist, essayist, and childrens book author. She wrote The Friskative Dog and the National Book Award finalist Highwire Moon. Her most recent novel is A Million Nightingales.
"Reading by the Numbers," by Susan Straight, is reprinted with permission from The New York Times. You can read it in the print version of Rethinking Schools Winter 2009-10 on p. 25 or access it online.