As the common core is brought to life in classrooms this year, some English/language arts teachers are finding themselves caught in a swirl of debate about whether the new standards require them to cut back on prized pieces of the literary canon to make room for nonfiction. A recent spate of news reports has ignited a new wave of anxiety about the Common Core State Standards' emphasis on "informational text." In some states and districts, little or no guidance is being offered on the issue for teachers, leaving them to grapple with achieving the right balance of fiction and nonfiction on their own. Even where guidance is offered, teachers are carrying away varying messages, resulting in some cases in bitter disagreements over who is misinterpreting the standards. The resulting landscape is pockmarked with debates about how much the standards require English/language arts teachers to change the literature they've long taught, whether that change is positive or negative, and how teachers across the curriculum should be sharing the new expectations.