ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Taffy E. Raphael
Taffy E. Raphael, a former classroom teacher, is currently a professor in the Department of Reading and Language Arts at Oakland University. She received her master's degree in reading instruction at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, studying and conducting research at the Center for the Study of Reading. At Oakland University, she teaches courses on literacy instruction in the master's and doctoral programs and offers a workshop on Book Club each semester. Prior to taking her position at Oakland, she was a professor in the College of Education at Michigan State University. There she taught courses about literacy instruction; conducted research on alternative methods for teaching reading, writing, and oral language in elementary school; and coordinated the Master's Degree Program in Literacy Instruction for six years. Cofounder of the Book Club Project, Dr. Raphael led the collaborative team of researchers and teachers who developed the program over the course of eight years. She has published her research in such journals as Reading Research Quarterly and The Reading Teacher, and she has coauthored and edited books including Creating an Integrated Approach to Literacy Instruction (Harcourt Brace, 1996), Contexts of School-Based Literacy (Random House, 1986), and The Book Club Connection: Literacy Learning and Classroom Talk (Teachers College Press, 1997). In 1997 she was selected as Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading by the International Reading Association.

Marcella Kehus
After studying for her bachelor's and master's degrees at Michigan State University, Marcella Kehus received her Ph.D. in Reading and Language Arts from Oakland University in 2000. Having taught middle school language arts for over thirteen years, and high school English for five years, all in Berkley, Michigan, she is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Toledo in Ohio. At the university level, she teaches Multicultural Literature, Content Area Reading and other literacy courses in the Judith Herb College of Education. Her research interests focus on Multicultural Book Clubs as a third space wherein children from diverse backgrounds can build from their own funds of knowledge and cultures to access the Discourse of school and power. Dr. Kehus is the author of articles in professional publications such as the Journal for Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Reading Teacher, and Language Arts. She presents at numerous conferences including the International Reading Association, National Reading Conference, American Anthropological Association, and Michigan Reading Association. She also consults with various school districts in both staff and curriculum development.

Karen Damphousse
Karen Damphousse's greatest education has been her 11 years of experience with middle school students in the state of Michigan. Her undergraduate degree at Calvin College prepared her well for this life-long discipline. She works diligently to inspire budding readers and writers in a rather awkward stage of life to be thoughtful, articulate, and creative language participants. In both public and private school settings, the Book Club philosophy has helped her to organize, proclaim, and enhance her own methods of nurturing independent readers and writers. In addition to this experiential mode of learning, she earned her master's degree in Reading and Language Arts from Oakland University. She has spoken at the NCTE's national convention, and her publications include "Understanding Culture in Our Lives and Work," an article she co-authored for the book Reconceptualizing Literacy in the New Age of Multiculturalism and Pluralism (Information Age Publishing, 2001). Currently, as a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher in the Grosse Pointe Public Schools, she is developing new Book Club units for her curriculum.