Analysis: The Importance of Words
The words of the children help in understanding the effect of the mentors on the children's attitudes towards the mentoring sessions. The children use vocabulary words that are serious and mature and reflect the importance that the children placed on having the mentors return. It is as though they wanted the researchers to really understand what the mentoring meant to them. Notice the positive words of praise for the mentors themselves. The effect the mentors had on boys' and girls' literacy is celebrated as we recognize the wide range of genre enjoyed by both boys and girls - history, mystery, adventure, fiction, funny, fractured fairytales, action, cool books, biography, and one even mentioned Canadian geography. The students' growing understanding of the various genres was an unexpected effect.

The mentors had not set out to directly instruct the students on literacy elements and yet the students seemed to absorb and reflect a growth in literacy development. This reminds us of the importance of the transaction not only between mentor and child but the pivotal role of the text itself. The literature is a way for the child to know and to experience the aesthetic; the patterns and style of genre; and to make connections to self and to the world. The children have the confidence to critically evaluate the male mentor reading program.

Note: There are very few spelling errors in the children's heartfelt evaluations of the mentors.