James Preller's Blog

Hello, I am an 8^th gr. teacher in Ashtabula, Ohio and I am currently teaching the book Bystander.  I have searched high and low for an audio CD or cassette for this book to use in my classroom because I have a large amount of struggling readers that this would benefit.  Does this book have an audio accommodation?  I would greatly appreciate any information that you would give me.  By the way, I LOVED the book!!  Our school is currently beginning a Bully Week in school, and this is fitting in great with this activity.  I hope my students enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks, Nicole

Nicole,

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Thanks for your kind words. I have received quite a few requests similar to yours. Unfortunately, an audio component to BYSTANDER remains stuck in the discussion stage. Which I gather means: Nope, never gonna happen. I suspect the book’s timeliness took the audio folks by surprise. Believe me, I’m frustrated too. But to be kind, I don’t think the audio business is exactly booming these days, so they need to be very careful about what they produce and try to sell.

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This pains me for the reason you mentioned. This is a book that’s being read in class and, in some cases, entire grades. It’s a novel, yes, but one that ties into and hopefully supports the anti-bullying work that’s being done around the country. Given the importance of this issue, I wish we had an audio companion to offer the students who struggle with the printed word.

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I wonder if the new business model is that we (they) produce something inexpensively, and sell it for 99 cents (cheap!) or just give it away. Hmmm.

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Ultimately, I’m just the writer, and these types of publishing decisions go over my head.

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JP