Lucy Calkins, director of the Reading and Writing Project, said that the decision to provide millions of books for middle school classrooms is "one of the smartest things [that the school system has ever done]." Her response came in support of this component of the new literacy curriculum that focuses on individualized reading, despite complaints by some that many of the titles originally selected from the five core lists will not be included in the shipments. Scholastic, Inc., the company responsible for the distribution, said that this is because many of the books are either out-of-print or not available in sufficient quantities.

Each teacher in grades 6-9 will receive about 500 books, including multiple copies of some titles. Calkins, who worked for the city on a previous list for younger grades, said, "The world is full of marvelous books."

The article, entitled "A Summer Mystery: The List and the Lost" appeared in the July 20 edition of the New York Times.

Published Monday, Jul. 28, 2003