From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 18:22:59 -0500

What with one thing and another, I did not get to finish reading "A Year Down Yonder" to my 6th graders until today. I confess that I was a little worried about the end. This is a coeducational class of 11-year-olds. The boys, and most of the girls, are a long way from thinking about love and marriage -- in fact they still arrange their seats in sex-segregated groups as 4th or 5th graders would. I'm not sure all my boys know all the girls' names in their class, but they CARED about Mary Alice and Gran dma Dowdel. There was that sudden silence that tells you that everyone is paying attention as Grandma helped Mary Alice make her decision to go back to Chicago. And when I began the final chapter one boy kept saying "Royce McNabb" over and over, until his quiet chant turned to "just tell us." They were truly on the edge of their seats right up to the end. This is a group that scoffs at the predictability of "most books" (from their vast reading experience) but they LOVED the happy ending.

-Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.com
Received on Tue 23 Jan 2001 05:22:59 PM CST