Jan Brett Writes Back!

I sent an email to Jan Brett and she responded this weekend. In the email I introduced myself and mentioned that in my University of Missouri distance education class, Learning With the Internet, I had accessed a site BookPals Storyline Online. I encouraged her to read the viewer's comments about the site and also encouraged her to to utilize this technology on her site as well. Finally, I recommended that her books be read to children on BookPals Storyline Online.

This is her response:

Dear Robert,

Thank you for writing to me. It is a pleasure to hear from you. Thanks for coming to my booksigning. I loved having the opportunity to visit together. Thanks also for the website recommendation. It is nifty technology.

Sincerely,

Jan Brett

Not as much dialogue as I would have hoped but it was punctual and it does inspire me to spend more money at Barnes and Noble on childrens books by Jan Brett for my daughter. I'm not sure if Jan actually responded or if she employs people to this for her. Obviously, one of the dilemmas of receiving electronic communication. In my email I didn't state that I had gone to her book signing. This was a trip for my wife and daughter. With millions of books in print I'm sure she has quite a fan club. It will be interesting to see if she changes her website in the future or if one of her books shows up on BookPals Storyline Online. My step-mother read my Blog and recommended the site to the local school librarian in Onaga, Kansas as well last week. Guess that this is what it is all about...sharing of ideas. On a positive note, I did plug the University of Missouri's graduate program in educational technology!

I didn't have access to the Internet this weekend. We left for Manhattan, Kansas on Friday and returned Monday. If was able to write down some topics for future Blog entries and purchased my first MP3 player.