ACTIVE VOICE. 2nd ed. Edited by W.H, New and W.E. Messenger. Scarborough (Ont.), Prentice-Hall. c1986. 522 pp. paper, $14.95, ISBN 0-13-003724-9. CIP Grades 8 and up Reviewed by Alan Thomas Volume 14 Number 5 1986 September This collection of informal essays from around the English-speaking world contains many delights; Thurber and E.B. White, Dylan Thomas and Flannery O'Connor, and in more sombre mood, George Orwell. The Canadians hold up well in this company and are remarkably varied: Nellie McClung, the great feminist, and Ken Dryden, the great goalie, being two unexpected treats, alongside essayist Robert Fulford, novelist Margaret Atwood. and professor and wit, Michael Hornyansky. Teachers will be grateful for the extensive apparatus of discussion and the topic suggestions for class use. The division of kinds of essay according to function is debatable; "Writing to Explain" and "Writing to Amuse" are categories that surely can hardly be separated. But the quality of the contents is high and that, most certainly, is the main thing. The editors might look again at the introductory list of literary terms. Does a book of prose need an explanation of syllabic stress and, if so, had they not better give the standard forms of anapaestic and dactylic feet? These seem reversed. Alan Thomas, Scarborough College, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ont.