Benita Dillard and her coauthors, Nancy Walker and Thomas Bean, know that content-area teachers today are swamped with mandates to meet and content to cover. As longtime researchers, writers, and teachers, they've seen students and teachers struggle with textbooks that don't teach. In When Textbooks Fall Short, they show how their research and experiences support their belief that reaching out to students through non-traditional texts helps everyone, including their teacher. Benita is a high school teacher and recently completed her doctoral studies in the department of curriculum and instruction at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.