I'm an English teacher who has always loved SF and, luckily, several of Bradbury's stories are in our literature book. This summer I have decided to also teach Dandelion Wine. I am looking for inexpensive copies of the book and posters of his other works to use in my classroom. Any ideas?

I have had good luck getting inexpensive copies of books on Amazon.com. I recently got an Agatha Christie in brand new condition for $0.01. Shipping and handling of course brought it up to $3.99, but that's still a bargain for paperbacks today.

I also just checked out E-Bay and found tons of Ray's books for sale, sometimes for amazingly low prices. I just bought an audio book version of "Sound of Thunder" and "Night Call, Collect" for a grand total of $4.01. I was the only bidder and the starting bid was $0.01, so that's what I bid.(Somehow I felt a little bit guilty bidding such a low amount on something of Ray's!!). The rest of my cost was the shipping and handling. Here's a little of the description of this item: "Full cast dramatization...each story having been painstakingly adapted and produced in super-stereo with original music and "bigger-than-life" sound effects." It also includes an exclusive interview with Ray, and a quote from him saying, "These productions are beautiful and perfect to my work. I couldn't be happier." If it's OK in Ray's book, then I know I'm going to love it. All this for a mere $4.01!! So check out E-Bay too, and maybe you'll find something you can use in your upcoming unit. Happy hunting!

Publishers and booksellers are usually only too pleased to give away posters - the trouble is they probably only produce posters for the "big new" books they are currently pushing.

I agree about Amazon, I have bought quite a few used books from them. At first, I feared that I might be paying too much to receive tatty copies, but to date every one I have bought has been in better condition than described. I've just done a quick check and found about 10 copies of DW under $2.

- Phil

[This message has been edited by philnic (edited 07-22-2004).]

Several years ago I was substitute teaching in the New London, MN high school and I mentioned to the 8th grade English teacher, that I was going to substitute for, that I had met Ray several times and had corresponded with him over the years. Weeks later, I was able to substitute for the same teacher. In their text book was Ray's short story, The Drummer Boy, and she wanted me to teach it as a lesson for that day. So I was wondering what I could do to make it interesting. Since I had a couple of days to prepare I called Ray on a Friday night and Marguerite answered and said that Ray was not home but to call the next day which I did.

I had a speaker phone and tape recorder and got Ray's permission to record our conversation when I called him the next morning. He then told me the inspiration behind the story and after I turned off the recorder we discussed a couple of other topics.

But then I had the tape which I played to each class before they read the story. They seemed to enjoy hearing from Ray himself the thought behind the story and I hope that it provided a more memorable learning experience for them.

[This message has been edited by biplane1 (edited 07-22-2004).]

[This message has been edited by biplane1 (edited 07-22-2004).]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll check them out!