LETTERS: YELL FUNDS BUY SETS OF NOVELS

To the editor:

I am tardy in expressing my thanks for the YELL grant, but I have an excellent reason. (Doesn't this sound like a junior high student?) I was waiting to make certain the three sets of 30 novels I ordered were available, had arrived and were anxiously being awaited by my students.

After I learned my grant was $300, I decided to buy a new set of novels for each grade level I teach. For the sixth grade, I ordered "A Stranger Came Ashore" by Mollie Hunter, a Scottish folk tale about a great seal king who transforms himself into a handsome stranger so he can capture a beautiful human wife for his underwater kingdom. The seventh graders will read "The Stolen Train" by Robert Ashley, historical fiction based on an actual event in the Civil War where an undercover band of Union officers hijack a Reb supply train, blowing up the tracks as they go.

My eighth graders are my toughest sell. They are worldly wise and worthy opponents in my quest to make lifetime readers out of all my kids. For them, the choice is tougher, because the pickings are few. They are not quite adults but far from little kids. I have to walk a thin line between adult fiction and "this better not be a girl's book, Mrs. Crow." I finally decided on "Downriver" by Will Hobbs, a rafting adventure set in the Grand Canyon at a survival camp for misfits, sort of a teen-agers meet roaring rapids.

I want to express my thanks for including my program in the YELL Foundation's generosity. Every year, I see the seeds of my efforts take root when some mom says, "My kid never picked up a book until now." I know I lose a few along the way, but at least they've had three years of good literature -- enough, I hope, to hook them for life.

BECKY CROW

St. Vincent de Paul School

Cape Girardeau