Mentor Book Selection
During the project, the mentors would visit the project collection of books to select a read aloud book for their weekly class session at the school. It was interesting to observe their selection strategies. One pair of mentors served as French Language Monitors for elementary French Immersion classes in the local school district over the length of the project. Therefore, they had some familiarity with the types of children's literature available in school libraries and classrooms. These two mentors were decisive in their book selections and did not require assistance in doing so. By comparison, most of the other mentors relied on their initial experience with the book collection from the Mentor Training Workshop where they had been introduced to some of the collection.

Their first week's selection reflected a book they had read and enjoyed during the workshop. During the following weeks, it was revealed that many of the books were unfamiliar to the Mentors. As they perused the offerings, they would inevitably engage in book discussions. The researchers tried to assist mentors with selections. One researcher reports that discussions with her often took the form of a book talk; she would flip through the illustrations with them and provide oral summaries of the books. The book talks and discussions aided the mentors in narrowing their focus for selection. Subsequently, they would sign out at least two books to read independently, make their final selection, and prepare for the read aloud session.