Readers' advisory with middle schoolers does not come easily. In an effort to expand students' reading horizons, the author describes how to teach students to speak intelligently and thoughtfully about their book preferences. She cites Joyce Saricks's "Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library" (ALA, 2005), a book that gave her the clarity she had been craving--a complete explanation of the elusive concept she had been trying to convey to her students. Although the book targets reference librarians who often make recommendations to patrons on genres they do not typically read, Saricks's advice also applies to school librarians. She shows how to frame a discussion to get patrons to articulate the appeal of a book, author, or genre. Saricks suggests replacing the use of subject headings with something she calls "appeal terms," essentially adjectives that effectively convey a reader's reaction to certain elements of a book. The author has found that using picture books to teach the value of appeal terms is a great way to model how to describe the primary elements of a story.