Letters

One librarian's wild and wacky experience abroad

"Strangers in Paradise " By Sarah Prescott (June 2001) sheds light on a wonderful opportunity about which most people only dream. Everything Prescott said is true. I was one of those "wild and wacky" international school librarians for two years. My husband, a school counselor, and I worked in a large international school in Seoul, Korea. The experience changed our lives forever. We both grew exponentially and loved our work there. Besides working in a foreign country, we lived within the local community. Everyday life was very different from what we had always known. Beyond work, there was travel. Seeing the country, experiencing the culture, travelling to nearby countries, becoming friends with teachers from around the world…. I could go on and on about my fascinating experience. I would not have changed it for the world. If you need a change and are open to new opportunities and new ways of thinking, check out international schools. I heartily recommend it.

Joy Shaup, Children's Librarian
Covina Public Library
Covina, CA

I wish to express our extreme disappointment with the review of Human Body in Action (October 2001). We are very upset about the inaccurate comments that were made about our program, Genes & Heredity , a component of this series.

The reviewer, Joanne Hammond, attributes a statement to the show that she claims is incorrect. However, the statement she cites does not appear in the program. Hammond claims that the video states: "the light-colored father hamster must have two dominant genes because light-colored fur is dominant." She goes on to say that the hamster could be a hybrid and claims that our wording creates an inaccuracy that flaws the program.

The wording that does appear in the show is as follows: "Sandy [the light-colored hamster] is also purebred. He has two genes for light-colored fur." We never claim that this hamster must have two dominant genes because he has light-colored fur. We simply establish at the start of our explanation that this animal is purebred, which then enables us to walk through the creation of a Punnett square, illustrating the possible variations of offspring for this hamster and his mate. Without stating this information as we do, the Punnett square could not be completed, for if the genotype of the parents is not known, the Punnett square is useless.

Schlessinger Media takes great pride in the programming we produce, and we work very hard to ensure the accuracy of the content we present. We welcome reviews, feedback, and constructive criticism from our customers and reviewers, but we take great offense at having our work and good name besmirched unfairly.

Lori Griffin, Curriculum Director
Schlessinger Media
Wynnewood, PA

The statement that Ms. Griffin puts into quotation marks was my paraphrasing of what I believed I was hearing on the video, not my direct quotation of the video text. The actual words from the video, in relation to the male (light-colored) hamster's side of the Punnett square, were "Two capital F's there, since light fur is a dominant trait." When I heard that, I rewound and listened repeatedly to what I thought was a logical length of the tape, what seemed to be a complete segment because it had changed from live action into graphic depiction, beginning with a drawing of Reginald Punnett, the tale of his place in science history, the illustrations explaining how a Punnett square is formed, and the filling in of the square. I'm afraid that my efforts did not take me as far back in my rewinding as the section when we first met Sandy, the male hamster, and heard that he was a purebred and therefore had two dominant traits for his fur color. I apologize for missing that detail while I was trying so hard to make sense of the statement. The number of the details to be factored in was apparently too widely spaced for me to remember them, and I apologize for this lapse in my ability.

Joanne K. Hammond, Librarian
Chambersburg Area
Middle School
Chambersburg, PA

I enjoyed Louisa Aikin's enthusiastic article about school and public libraries doing joint battles ("A Bigger Battle ," September 2001). I was a school librarian in Des Plaines, IL, when the public librarian in Urbana told me about the program. She discovered it when Joanne Kelly, an Urbana school librarian, asked the public library to host the playoffs from her school. Joanne had adapted Battle of the Books from the original Chicago Public Schools' radio program. So schools and public libraries have been cooperating in this for at least 40 years, and look how it's grown!

Aikin didn't mention the books that offer prepared questions on many classic and contemporary books. Joanne Kelly's The Battle of Books: K–8 was published in 1990 by Libraries Unlimited. It was preceded by Name That Book (Greeson, Janet and Karen Taha, Scarecrow Press, 1986), and followed by my book written with Cheryl Page, Books Battles and Bees (ALA, 1994). These books may be out of print, but are available through interlibrary loan. This past spring, Highsmith/Upstart Books published Battle of the Books and More: Reading Activities for Middle School Students, which I co-wrote with Frances Corcoran and Beverley Fonnesbeck. It received a very favorable review in the July 2001 SLJ. All four books provide a wide variety of activities and ideas for using this program in grades one through eight.

I hope this encourages others to plan a successful Battle of the Books program, as Louisa Aikin suggests.

Sybilla Avery Cook
School Library Consultant
Roseburg, OR