TEACHER'S IDEA PACKAGE AND STUDENT WORKSHEETS FOR I AM DAVID Devra B. Freedman. Toronto, Methuen, c1983. 36pp, paper, $5.95. ISBN 0485-95920-0. TEACHER'S IDEA PACKAGE AND STUDENT WORKSHEETS TO THE SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS OF MONICA HUGHES Devra B. Freedman. Toronto, Methuen, c1983. 47pp, paper, $6.95. ISBN 0485-95930-8. Professional. Reviewed by Grace E. Funk. Volume 12 Number 5 1984 September I Am David was written by Anne Holm and originally published in Denmark in 1963, then by Methuen in 1965. It is now available in a Methuen Magnet edition. The Monica Hughes set deals with the titles Craw on Conshelf Ten, Earthdark, The Keeper of the Isis Light, The Guardian of Isis, The Isis Pedlar, The Tomorrow City, and Ring-Rise, Ring-Set. Dorothy B. Morden is named as consultant for the package on / Am David and Stanley Sparkes as consultant for the Monica Hughes set. Nevertheless, both sets are nearly identical in approach. Each gives a brief introduction to the novels, a series of introductory or exploratory questions (and some answers), study guide questions, writing assignments and projects, suggestions for group work, and a bibliography. The approach is linear and academic and not very imaginative. Most of the ideas and suggestions are predictable, those that almost any teacher would automatically bring to mind. The style of the questions is dated, (my students were studying I Am David ten years ago); the introduction to science fiction is downright condescending and talks about "fantasy," which is something quite different. Surely we do not need to be told how to clean an overhead transparency? The manuals are not carefully edited; some of the pages seem out of sequence, and there are typos. There is no bibliographic description or purchasing information given for the books themselves or for the titles in the bibliographies. The study questions are based almost entirely on content and events, with some attention to character development. There is nothing on style, or theme, or meaning, or the author's intent. For instance, in the study of The Tomorrow City, there is no mention of Caro's blindness, or its significance, nor is there any indication of the tremendous ethical dilemma posed in Ring-Rise, Ring-Set. Most of the writing assignments and projects are the type that lead out of the books. (I believe writing assignments should get deeper "into" a book.) Oral presentations are suggested, but there is, surprisingly, very little class discussion, not even of Olwen's query in The Guardian of Isis, "How can a people forget its own history so fast?" Gazing at junior high students with their punk haircuts and Boy George makeup, I have difficulty visualizing them "writing a letter from David to Maria ten years after his return to Denmark." In short, these manuals are thorough, reasonably adequate within the limits mentioned above, and probably unnecessary. Grace E. Funk, Harwood E. S., Vernon, BC.