Peter Mather earned his BA in government from the University of Redlands, his first MA, in African studies, from the University of California, Los Angeles; his second MA, in reading, from California State University, Los Angeles; and his Ed.D in curriculum and instruction from the University of Southern California. Before recently retiring from Glendale Community College, he taught at the secondary, adult-education, and community-college levels for over 30 years. While at Glendale Community College, he taught both developmental reading and critical and evaluative reading. He also taught American government and was the college director of the America Reads/Counts Program. In addition to being coauthor of The Art of Critical Reading, now in its second edition, and Racing Ahead with Reading, he has published articles in the Journal of Reading.

Rita Romero McCarthy earned a BA in sociology and history from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in education from Arizona State University. She has taught at the elementary, secondary, adult-education, and community college levels. For the past 20 years, she has taught ESL, developmental reading, and critical and evaluative reading at Glendale Community College. Ms. McCarthy has published articles in professional journals and other media on the use of bibliotherapy. She has also published reading lists for beginning and remedial readers and is a reading specialist. In addition to this textbook, she is coauthor of The Art of Critical Reading and Racing Ahead with Reading