From: Jerome A. Brown <brisco>
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 16:20:05 -0500

The only thing I remember about Mr. Chappele was that he was a little too friendly with the daughter/sister who had trouble reading and that he drove a VW. My son and I took turns reading to each other so I may have "drifted off" during that incident. I remember thinking that the grandmother trusted him an awful lot. Thanks for the tip on being on the Newbery committee. As an excerise, my instructor at UAB, Dr. JoAnn Portalupi, had 12 of us on one committee and we had to agree on the Opicus ??? Award. We were great compared to the other "group" in our class. JoAnn said that the other group should take lessons from us. We had one person who kept us on focus while following the criteria. We selected "Kids at Work" as our winner and 2 the honor books, while I don't remember the exact titles but was a book a little girl had written and illustrated about her travels in Africa. The other was a book about trees. I pushed the "KAWork" book because of the history and fact, photos, and just the overall appeal to me. Nobody else much liked it but it DID follow the criteria. I cannot imagine the number of books that must be reviewed and the time and effort (not to mention, hair pulling...) that would go into selection. It was a great exercise and one which I think JoAnn made her point. This class is my 4th in grad school, my 2nd in Language Arts, and my favorite by far! I would've like it better had I not have to work 8-5 everyday. I hope I get an "A".

Thanks again for your ideas.


Eliza T. Dresang wrote:
Received on Sun 16 May 1999 04:20:05 PM CDT