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Homeschooled: A Memoir
A heartbreaking and empowering debut memoir about a mother’s all-consuming love, a son’s perilous quest to discover the world beyond the front door and the unregulated homeschool system that impacts millions like him
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” With no background in education and no formal training, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims. She forced him to bleach his hair and to crawl like a baby in a strange and regressive attempt to recapture his early years.
Long before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.
At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son’s battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother’s all-consuming love.
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” With no background in education and no formal training, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims. She forced him to bleach his hair and to crawl like a baby in a strange and regressive attempt to recapture his early years.
Long before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.
At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son’s battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother’s all-consuming love.
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First published January 6, 2026
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About the author
Stefan Merrill Block
7 books209 followersStefan grew up in Plano, Texas. His first book, The Story of Forgetting, was an international bestseller and the winner of Best First Fiction at the Rome International Festival of Literature, The Ovid Prize from the Romanian Writer's Union, the 2008 Merck Serono Literature Prize and the 2009 Fiction Award from The Writers’ League of Texas. The Story of Forgetting was also a finalist for the debut fiction awards from IndieBound, Salon du Livre and The Center for Fiction. Following the publication of his second novel, The Storm at the Door, Stefan was awarded The University of Texas Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, as well as residencies at The Santa Maddalena Foundation and Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo in Italy. Stefan's novels have been translated into ten languages, and his stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker Page-Turner, The Guardian, NPR’s Radiolab, GRANTA, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Stefan's third novel, Oliver Loving, is forthcoming from Macmillan/Flatiron Books. He lives in Brooklyn.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,003 reviews
January 16, 2026
I feel a bit like the people who give an Amazon product two stars because it was damaged in shipping. It really isn’t fair. It’s not the author’s story or how he told it that is causing me to give it two stars, but rather the name he chose to give his book. This book is in a similar vein as Educated or I’m Glad My Mom Died. A story of a life filled with codependency, mental health issues, familial dysfunction, and yes, a son who was forcibly “homeschooled”. But to call what the author’s mother did “homeschooling” does a disservice to all the parents who choose to give their child an education at home, and prepare them for life.
I feel badly for the issues in the author’s family, and the trap that his own mother put him in. I hope he has gotten some professional therapy to work through it all.
I feel badly for the issues in the author’s family, and the trap that his own mother put him in. I hope he has gotten some professional therapy to work through it all.
December 23, 2025
Based on the description of this book, I was expecting a personal account of homeschooling, for better and worse. Instead, this memoir about the author’s experience of being “homeschooled” (there were very few actual lessons) by his narcissistic mother, who simply couldn’t cope with being alone and having her youngest child grow up, was devastating. Her emotional abuse and manipulation hit me very hard, yet the author presents her with respect and even affection. Despite my personal reaction to the content, this is a powerful and revealing memoir that provides much to think about.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
December 20, 2025
A fascinating memoir about growing up with a very controlling and manipulative mother.
While homeschooling was a large part of his need for control that ultimately had a great impact on the authors life, I was hoping for more extrapolation on how homeschooling as a whole gives these sorts of parents a cover. While homeschooling in and of itself isn’t always a bad thing, or doesn’t mean parents will ultimately neglect and abuse their children in this way, there is often some confusion in the community where abusive families can hide, while also sharing their tips and tricks with other families who wouldn’t otherwise seek this sort of distrust of their larger community or “others”.
As someone who was homeschooled myself (in what for me was a very positive experience that prepared me for college and beyond, different from the author), I cringed as I heard the names of the popular champions of homeschooling from the 90s. Along with the common phrases and excuses for needing to abandon the public school system and those supportive of it. That mindset is STRONG among many homeschooling communities and easily leads to an even more controlling environment under the guise of more “freedom”.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
While homeschooling was a large part of his need for control that ultimately had a great impact on the authors life, I was hoping for more extrapolation on how homeschooling as a whole gives these sorts of parents a cover. While homeschooling in and of itself isn’t always a bad thing, or doesn’t mean parents will ultimately neglect and abuse their children in this way, there is often some confusion in the community where abusive families can hide, while also sharing their tips and tricks with other families who wouldn’t otherwise seek this sort of distrust of their larger community or “others”.
As someone who was homeschooled myself (in what for me was a very positive experience that prepared me for college and beyond, different from the author), I cringed as I heard the names of the popular champions of homeschooling from the 90s. Along with the common phrases and excuses for needing to abandon the public school system and those supportive of it. That mindset is STRONG among many homeschooling communities and easily leads to an even more controlling environment under the guise of more “freedom”.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
December 5, 2025
I LOVE a messy, intimate family memoir and this one delivered. A mother's love turned narcissistic and dangerous, an introspective, bookish son, struggling to spread his wings...so good.
January 14, 2026
I had to DNF @ 30%. It just felt like the author was rambling. It’s really not even about being homeschooled. It’s about his narcissistic, controlling mother denying him education because of her fringe beliefs despite the fact his sibling goes to regular school.
January 15, 2026
Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block is a misleading title. It should have been called “Toxic Mom.”
Readers are subjected to a claustrophobic account of emotional manipulation and isolation under the guise of "homeschooling," where the narcissistic mother emerges as the toxic centerpiece - volatile, controlling, and suffocating in her need to keep her son from growing or connecting with the outside world.
Her erratic demands like forcing him to bleach his hair or crawl like a baby, and the complete lack of structured education reveal homeschooling not as a thoughtful alternative but as a tool for her own psychological grip, leaving her son abandoned to her unraveling presence with no peers, no oversight, and no real learning.
The memoir's focus on this dysfunctional dynamic makes the title feel like false advertising, turning what could have been a discussion of unregulated homeschooling into an exhausting portrait of maternal toxicity. Disappointing!
Readers are subjected to a claustrophobic account of emotional manipulation and isolation under the guise of "homeschooling," where the narcissistic mother emerges as the toxic centerpiece - volatile, controlling, and suffocating in her need to keep her son from growing or connecting with the outside world.
Her erratic demands like forcing him to bleach his hair or crawl like a baby, and the complete lack of structured education reveal homeschooling not as a thoughtful alternative but as a tool for her own psychological grip, leaving her son abandoned to her unraveling presence with no peers, no oversight, and no real learning.
The memoir's focus on this dysfunctional dynamic makes the title feel like false advertising, turning what could have been a discussion of unregulated homeschooling into an exhausting portrait of maternal toxicity. Disappointing!
December 4, 2025
3 stars - honestly, I was a bit let down by this book. As a parent who is debating homeschooling my 2026 kindergartener, I was hoping to have a lot of insight into homeschooling from the child's perspective. Homeschooled is more focused on the author's experiences with a "toxic mom" (she clearly was dealing with major mental health issues) and less on homeschooling. The last 40 pages are very strong and emotional, however, I didn't find what I was looking for in this book.
Homeschooled would be a good read for those who enjoyed I'm Glad My Mom Died and Hillbilly Elegy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy. Homeschooled hits shelves on January 6, 2026.
Homeschooled would be a good read for those who enjoyed I'm Glad My Mom Died and Hillbilly Elegy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy. Homeschooled hits shelves on January 6, 2026.
January 15, 2026
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. This book is marketed as a book about one man's negative experiences as a homeschooler, which then asks larger questions about homeschool regulation and parent's/children's rights. It is sort of about that but it also isn't. The homeschooling Block writes about is really just a symptom of a larger problem, namely his mother's declining mental health and alcoholism as part of overall family dysfunction. The book morphs into a book about Plano, TX, at one point in the recent past, being labeled the suicide capital of America with the author knowing several students and a teacher who commit suicide. So, it ends up reading like homeschooling as a symptom of mental health problems rather than homeschooling as it's own practice. I'm absolutely not saying this right or making much sense. If you read this as a memoir of one man's experiences, then great. However, the marketing as a broader case study into homeschooling isn't accurate. I think this is worth reading, although the author brings up several important life points that get dropped but never get picked back up, but I'm not sure it is worth reading for the reasons it's being presented as worth reading.
February 16, 2026
DNF at page 100 of 288. This book is not at all what it purports to be, but rather a memoir of a child separated from the world by a disengaged father, a severely mentally ill mother (all signs point to Borderline Personality Disorder and alcoholism), and a system that made the abuse possible by sanctioning homeschooling without monitoring by the state. It is sad, and I am sorry for what Block endured, but it gives me nothing other than the opportunity to feel icky about being a voyuer feasting on the sad story of another. I hope Block found writing this to be cathartic. I don't think it speaks to issues with homeschooling in a way that applies to anyone but him.
This was not helped by the audio, which was read by the author. His reading is not terrible, but also not compelling.
This was not helped by the audio, which was read by the author. His reading is not terrible, but also not compelling.
August 15, 2025
This memoir pulls you in quickly and keep you there. The author, Stefan Merrill Block, is not the first to speak out about the damage homeschooling caused him, and he won't be the last. In fact, I suspect we will continue to see an increase in stories of this type as a new wave of homeschoolers enter adulthood. However, this memoir is particularly special. Block recounts his childhood openly and honestly, with a hindsight that truly illuminates some of the real horrific experiences he had as a preteen living in isolation. However, he narrates this without judgment. He doesn't try to pass his mom off as "bad" or "good". He simply recounts his
childhood, and hers, with a voice that is
compelling and sympathetic. This book is a great starting point for the important conversations that need to be had regarding homeschooling.
childhood, and hers, with a voice that is
compelling and sympathetic. This book is a great starting point for the important conversations that need to be had regarding homeschooling.
March 7, 2026
This is a story about a mother’s all-consuming—and stifling—love for her son. The author recounts his experience of being pulled out of elementary school for a “homeschooling” experience that addressed his mother’s loneliness more than his own educational needs.
I devoured this book. The author is an engaging writer and I felt pulled right into these scenes. My favourite part was his return to public school in high school, equipped, at his mother’s request, with a filing cabinet on wheels instead of a backpack and a noisy electric typewriter for note-taking. Needless to say, making friends did not come easily. This section in particular was funny and painful in the way the best adolescent stories are.
This book is an indictment of loose homeschooling regulations that allow kids’ education to slip through the cracks, but it’s also a deeply personal story about the author’s relationship with his loving but flawed mother. The book was written after her death, and is not necessarily a flattering portrait, but the author’s underlying love for her shows through.
This was a truly gripping read that will appeal to readers of Destroy This House and Educated.
I devoured this book. The author is an engaging writer and I felt pulled right into these scenes. My favourite part was his return to public school in high school, equipped, at his mother’s request, with a filing cabinet on wheels instead of a backpack and a noisy electric typewriter for note-taking. Needless to say, making friends did not come easily. This section in particular was funny and painful in the way the best adolescent stories are.
This book is an indictment of loose homeschooling regulations that allow kids’ education to slip through the cracks, but it’s also a deeply personal story about the author’s relationship with his loving but flawed mother. The book was written after her death, and is not necessarily a flattering portrait, but the author’s underlying love for her shows through.
This was a truly gripping read that will appeal to readers of Destroy This House and Educated.
January 20, 2026
I was initially put off by that horrid cover art, but you know the saying—so I read it all over the snowy holiday weekend. The book is a mixed bag. It's not truly about homeschooling. It's more of an autobiography of a boy's relationship with a narcissistic mother.
The first half had me hooked. It's a visceral account of what it's like to be 'unschooled' by a lunatic and learn essentially nothing for five years while enduring terrible psychological and physical abuse. The mother was a real piece of work: the school day was her bringing her son on grocery store and shopping errands so she wouldn't have to be alone, then he'd color a picture and watch TV and that was it. She drove him to his former school and made him scream insults at his old classmates to further alienate him. I could feel the boy's loneliness. I know what it's like (I was a product of homeschooling too. It's a bit like being kidnapped, but because it's your own mother, no one is coming to rescue you).
The second half starts strong, detailing his agonizing transition into high school. There are some wild moments, like his mother forcing him to bring a typewriter and a filing cabinet (with "where's the beef" inexplicably written on it) to his first day. But then, the mother gets sick, and the narrative shifts into a long, overly sentimental account of her illness. Ugh.
It was frustrating to read this sudden reversal in tone. After pages and pages of her insanity and abuse, the author tries to humanize her in a way that was forced. It made me think of the much superior I'm Glad My Mom Died, which never pressured the reader to sympathize with an abuser.
It read like the author hadn't fully processed his trauma; the account of her illness seems more like an apology for having written about her abuse in the first place. I felt more pity for the author's lingering enmeshment than I did for the mother, especially given her refusal to seek medical care for ten years.
Sometimes, even after the kidnapping ends, the captive is still left making excuses. "There was love! It was fun!" It's just...sad.
The first half had me hooked. It's a visceral account of what it's like to be 'unschooled' by a lunatic and learn essentially nothing for five years while enduring terrible psychological and physical abuse. The mother was a real piece of work: the school day was her bringing her son on grocery store and shopping errands so she wouldn't have to be alone, then he'd color a picture and watch TV and that was it. She drove him to his former school and made him scream insults at his old classmates to further alienate him. I could feel the boy's loneliness. I know what it's like (I was a product of homeschooling too. It's a bit like being kidnapped, but because it's your own mother, no one is coming to rescue you).
The second half starts strong, detailing his agonizing transition into high school. There are some wild moments, like his mother forcing him to bring a typewriter and a filing cabinet (with "where's the beef" inexplicably written on it) to his first day. But then, the mother gets sick, and the narrative shifts into a long, overly sentimental account of her illness. Ugh.
It was frustrating to read this sudden reversal in tone. After pages and pages of her insanity and abuse, the author tries to humanize her in a way that was forced. It made me think of the much superior I'm Glad My Mom Died, which never pressured the reader to sympathize with an abuser.
It read like the author hadn't fully processed his trauma; the account of her illness seems more like an apology for having written about her abuse in the first place. I felt more pity for the author's lingering enmeshment than I did for the mother, especially given her refusal to seek medical care for ten years.
Sometimes, even after the kidnapping ends, the captive is still left making excuses. "There was love! It was fun!" It's just...sad.
January 18, 2026
(free review copy) Block expertly demonstrates that you can write about trauma, without the trauma being outwardly horrific. Children can be traumatized without being sexually abused, without their being a horrific ending. This memoir reads like fiction, and I simply couldn’t put it down.
As an educator and parent, homeschooling has always been of great interest and concern to me, and Block is finally opening up about how painful and lonely this experience was for him, and how our the United States lack of oversight of this practice puts children in potentially great danger of abuse and lack of schooling. And the history and LOBBYING behind homeschooling!
If you love memoirs that combine personal experience with social impact, definitely add this to your list.
Source: free review copy via Edelweiss
As an educator and parent, homeschooling has always been of great interest and concern to me, and Block is finally opening up about how painful and lonely this experience was for him, and how our the United States lack of oversight of this practice puts children in potentially great danger of abuse and lack of schooling. And the history and LOBBYING behind homeschooling!
If you love memoirs that combine personal experience with social impact, definitely add this to your list.
Source: free review copy via Edelweiss
January 6, 2026
This memoir is the January 2026 “Read with Jenna” choice for her book club. She has a fairly good track record for her choices that match my reading tastes, and I needed to read this ARC anyway, so I gave it a shot. That being said, memoirs aren’t usually part of my reading tastes.
Homeschooled, however, hooked me right in from the beginning. Before homeschooling was a thing, Stefan’s emotionally manipulative mother removed him from the structure of school to embark on unregulated homeschooling with no curriculum and questionable methods in order to keep him close and prevent him from growing up (and perhaps away). During the course of the book, we sympathize with his confusion over the love for his mother and his need to have other things in his life, and later his struggle to integrate into a society that left him behind in many ways. It is an honest, disturbing, and somehow humorous look into the author’s journey to find himself.
Thanks to Hanover Square Press/Harper Collins, Stefan Merrill Block (author), and Edelweiss for providing an advance digital review copy of Homeschooled: A Memoir. Their generosity did not influence my review in any way.
Homeschooled, however, hooked me right in from the beginning. Before homeschooling was a thing, Stefan’s emotionally manipulative mother removed him from the structure of school to embark on unregulated homeschooling with no curriculum and questionable methods in order to keep him close and prevent him from growing up (and perhaps away). During the course of the book, we sympathize with his confusion over the love for his mother and his need to have other things in his life, and later his struggle to integrate into a society that left him behind in many ways. It is an honest, disturbing, and somehow humorous look into the author’s journey to find himself.
Thanks to Hanover Square Press/Harper Collins, Stefan Merrill Block (author), and Edelweiss for providing an advance digital review copy of Homeschooled: A Memoir. Their generosity did not influence my review in any way.
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March 7, 2026I don't really know what to think about this book. I do know the title is pretty misleading. Although he was one of the very first to be homeachooled in Texas when it became legal, this book isn't really about his experience but about his toxic relationship with his mother. I got to the end and I don't think he ever truly saw how messed up his relationship with his mom was. Also, if you think this book is gonna be like Educated. It isn't really.
January 24, 2026
Audio: the way he read it, I don’t even think he knew what he wrote.
Content: he romanticized his mother’s emotional abuse.
Stay far away.
Content: he romanticized his mother’s emotional abuse.
Stay far away.
January 12, 2026
3.5 stars, rounded down for chastising all of the homeschool community. I would have rated this book more favorably if it had been more bipartisan on the issue of homeschooling and focused on the tendencies of his mother. This is a story of a mother’s love mixed with her mental illness and growing obsession with her child, while family members stood by and allowed it. It blames homeschools legality as the culprit for the authors suffering, when in fact the mothers behavior stretched into public school environment as well. This books tries to be a call-to-action for readers to protest the existence of homeschooling, which doesn’t sit well with me. Overall it is well written and moving, but not captivating.
January 10, 2026
I’m not sure how to feel about HOMESCHOOLED, a memoir about living with a mother’s unstable, controlling behavior.
As a former high school teacher, I have complicated feelings about homeschooling. Some students were like the author: socially stunted and academically poor. I felt frustrated and sad for these kids who just wanted to be accepted and have a chance to learn.
On the other hand, I have seen students achieve great success in a home learning environment. They are academically rich, confident kids who haven’t been smothered OR neglected.
I think the author would agree: there are no perfect learning environments. We can all tell harrowing stories about public, private, or homeschool education.
In HOMESCHOOLED, the author is putting a spotlight on a broken woman, not necessarily a broken system.
Every educational setting has its shadows. We have a responsibility to protect the children hiding there and turn on the lights.
As a former high school teacher, I have complicated feelings about homeschooling. Some students were like the author: socially stunted and academically poor. I felt frustrated and sad for these kids who just wanted to be accepted and have a chance to learn.
On the other hand, I have seen students achieve great success in a home learning environment. They are academically rich, confident kids who haven’t been smothered OR neglected.
I think the author would agree: there are no perfect learning environments. We can all tell harrowing stories about public, private, or homeschool education.
In HOMESCHOOLED, the author is putting a spotlight on a broken woman, not necessarily a broken system.
Every educational setting has its shadows. We have a responsibility to protect the children hiding there and turn on the lights.
January 16, 2026
The author makes a very good case for more oversight of “homeschooling” as it is almost entirely unregulated and can be very damaging to the future prospects of these children.
January 26, 2026
When I first heard about this book I was hoping for a great story about homeschooling, as I homeschooled my three children for eleven years and it was such a great experience for our family. However the author's story was not at all like our family's experience. He had a co-dependent mother who did NOT educate him or his brother and his father sounded almost non-existent. I am quite sure he needs to work out more things in his life. It truly makes me sad he had this experience.
I do hope people who don't know what homeschooling really is, do not base their opinions on his story! I educated my children to be life-long learners. All are college educated, two with masters, and all have successful careers, serve in their communities, and are happy and well-adjusted. Our entire family are all readers, constantly seeking to be curious and learn more, no matter how old we get.
I do hope people who don't know what homeschooling really is, do not base their opinions on his story! I educated my children to be life-long learners. All are college educated, two with masters, and all have successful careers, serve in their communities, and are happy and well-adjusted. Our entire family are all readers, constantly seeking to be curious and learn more, no matter how old we get.
January 27, 2026
Audiobook. Seems like the author still has years worth of therapy to unpack all the damage his mother has done to him. Parenting is serious business, and she made him the apex of her happiness. I do agree that homeschooling should have more regulation. I doubt the homeschooling crowd will go for this though…..it was interesting to learn about the fundamentalist Christians role in getting homeschooling legalized in TX. TX remains one of the easiest places to homeschool with no regulations whatsoever. The author took me down memory lane since we are the same age and I group up in a neighboring suburb. I don’t remember being affected by the large number of suicides but I definitely remember the undercover cops and busting up the heroin ring.
January 30, 2026
The gasps I gusped!!!!! This man had me crying in a Five Below!!!!
I am a known homeschool hater and this only had me doubling down, but it really shows some important elements that the larger conversation misses—namely mental health and unnaturally close/suffocating relationships that can cripple individuals for decades.
This was beautifully written with SO much heart. We know I love an insane memoir and this one is a bullseye.
I am a known homeschool hater and this only had me doubling down, but it really shows some important elements that the larger conversation misses—namely mental health and unnaturally close/suffocating relationships that can cripple individuals for decades.
This was beautifully written with SO much heart. We know I love an insane memoir and this one is a bullseye.
January 10, 2026
To be clear, this is less of a memoir about homeschooling and more of a book about a broken woman who fights to keep her son close to her from his childhood into adulthood. I was moved by the author's loving and compassionate portrayal of his mother while recounting the suffering she caused him. As someone who was homeschooled, there were several relatable moments that made me consider how easily this education system—or I guess the parents—can fail a child.
January 16, 2026
4.25-4.5 stars. A Read with Jenna - Jan. ‘26 pick. Kudos to SMB for writing this incredible debut. This exceptional memoir read just like a fiction novel growing up under the thumb of a dominant-clingy mother, yet the author takes it all in stride. He finagles his way into public high school and seeks out peers to help the loneliness from years of no playmates and homeschooling. This didn’t feel like a ‘woe is me’ telling, but instead (with his being the audio narrator) you can listen as he puts his life out there in a matter-of-factly tone. You can’t help but feel heavy-hearted for any child suffering from a parent’s instability.. and thankfully he managed to overcome the trauma even as it continued into adulthood, not easy by any means. Wanting independence and in keeping concern for his mother’s feelings he set boundaries. I spent one afternoon reading/listening to this and am so glad I requested it. Really interesting. Do recommend. 🎧Pub. 1/6/26
I received an ARC from HarperCollins via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I received an ARC from HarperCollins via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
February 8, 2026
The marketing shouts “HOMESCHOOLED” but this man’s story actually has very little to do with homeschooling and everything to do with his mother’s undiagnosed mental health issues.
Too many problems with this book to capture in a short review, but needless to say it was a slog.
Too many problems with this book to capture in a short review, but needless to say it was a slog.
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February 8, 2026Stefan Merrill Block’s Homeschooled is a memoir of the years he spent being homeschooled by his mentally ill mother because of her dissatisfaction with the public schools. This began in his late elementary years and continued until partway through high school. The setting is Plano, Texas, an affluent Dallas suburb that experienced extremely rapid growth during the 1980s. As Plano’s population surged, it was plagued by, first, a well-documented epidemic of teen suicide, then later by a wave of teen opioid deaths.
I need to offer a disclaimer here. I was a teacher in the Plano Independent School District from 1985-1987, the same years that Stefan attended school before being pulled out in 1990. I found the Plano schools to be a lockstep, test-driven, administration-centric system, so Block’s descriptions of the town and its schools rang true to my experience. That said, I left Plano decades ago, and I know families whose children found nourishment in the district’s arts programs. I make no claim to know what the schools became after I left.
Homeschooling is a valid option for many families, but like any human endeavor, some parents are better at it than others. Stefan’s mother was a disaster. For example, she forced him to crawl on all fours for weeks on end because she believed it would improve his penmanship. Her assessments were based on whether he knew the grade-level facts on Brain Quest cards. The mental abuse suffered by Stefan resulted from his mother’s constant need to be regarded as an educational guru. Many days were spent poolside or at the mall doing absolutely nothing academic in nature.
Homeschooled is a harrowing read as Stefan goes from one toxic educational environment to another. The author’s thesis is that homeschooling needs more regulation. This is problematic because so many homeschooling decisions are guided by conservative values that resist governmental regulation. So where does that leave kids like Stefan?
I need to offer a disclaimer here. I was a teacher in the Plano Independent School District from 1985-1987, the same years that Stefan attended school before being pulled out in 1990. I found the Plano schools to be a lockstep, test-driven, administration-centric system, so Block’s descriptions of the town and its schools rang true to my experience. That said, I left Plano decades ago, and I know families whose children found nourishment in the district’s arts programs. I make no claim to know what the schools became after I left.
Homeschooling is a valid option for many families, but like any human endeavor, some parents are better at it than others. Stefan’s mother was a disaster. For example, she forced him to crawl on all fours for weeks on end because she believed it would improve his penmanship. Her assessments were based on whether he knew the grade-level facts on Brain Quest cards. The mental abuse suffered by Stefan resulted from his mother’s constant need to be regarded as an educational guru. Many days were spent poolside or at the mall doing absolutely nothing academic in nature.
Homeschooled is a harrowing read as Stefan goes from one toxic educational environment to another. The author’s thesis is that homeschooling needs more regulation. This is problematic because so many homeschooling decisions are guided by conservative values that resist governmental regulation. So where does that leave kids like Stefan?
January 15, 2026
This is a rambling mess. I do not care for the author’s writing style. He shares fragments of his mother’s emotional abuse (which went far beyond the so-called homeschooling situation), but I am left confused about the big picture here. I usually love memoirs, and have enjoyed reading many other autobiographical stories involving dysfunctional families, but the way this was written did not capture my attention. And seriously, what was up with the dad? What kind of relationship did the parents have?
I tried to plug along but eventually DNF-ed at 70%.
I tried to plug along but eventually DNF-ed at 70%.
January 14, 2026
This is more of a rant than a review, but I've said it before, and I will keep saying it until I am blue in the face: homeschooling should only be allowed in the most extreme cases, and even then there should be actual oversight to ensure that kids are safe and cared for. Any time a kid is pulled from school it should trigger automatic red flags.
Yes, I am sure that not ALL homeschool situations are abusive and/or outright neglectful, but even in the most perfect cases, there's so much that kids miss out on and will they likely feel othered when they go out in the world and struggle to fit in.
The unfortunate truth is that a lot of kids fall through the cracks, they are abused, they suffer from educational neglect and neglect in general, and struggle with fitting in with their peers. They then either get sucked into whatever cult-like environment they were raised in where the cycle will continue, or they force their way out into the world and struggle to figure out what it means to be a functioning member of society.
Stefan managed to force his way back into school when he started highschool, but the damage was already done. He was forever labeled the homeschool kid and the things is peers discussed forever went over his head, but he persisted, and kept moving forward and eventually made it out on his own. Not all kids are lucky enough to do this.
These stories are so important to read and take seriously because I can't even imagine how many kids aren't able to make it out and tell theirs.
Source: was homeschooled from 5th grade on, my education was as lacking as Stefan's. I didn't make my way back to school, but I did get really good at faking it until I made it.
Yes, I am sure that not ALL homeschool situations are abusive and/or outright neglectful, but even in the most perfect cases, there's so much that kids miss out on and will they likely feel othered when they go out in the world and struggle to fit in.
The unfortunate truth is that a lot of kids fall through the cracks, they are abused, they suffer from educational neglect and neglect in general, and struggle with fitting in with their peers. They then either get sucked into whatever cult-like environment they were raised in where the cycle will continue, or they force their way out into the world and struggle to figure out what it means to be a functioning member of society.
Stefan managed to force his way back into school when he started highschool, but the damage was already done. He was forever labeled the homeschool kid and the things is peers discussed forever went over his head, but he persisted, and kept moving forward and eventually made it out on his own. Not all kids are lucky enough to do this.
These stories are so important to read and take seriously because I can't even imagine how many kids aren't able to make it out and tell theirs.
Source: was homeschooled from 5th grade on, my education was as lacking as Stefan's. I didn't make my way back to school, but I did get really good at faking it until I made it.
January 11, 2026
Not what I expected.
Based on the synopsis I first read, I thought this book would be more about homeschooling and the author’s experience with it.
That is a part of this book, but the whole is really more about the author’s relationship with his mother. I feel like it was a book with a lot of depth as Stefan wrote about the abuse he suffered from his mother but also about the love that was between them in the midst of that childhood trauma.
It’s a very well-written memoir but don’t expect it to be all about the homeschooling experience.
Based on the synopsis I first read, I thought this book would be more about homeschooling and the author’s experience with it.
That is a part of this book, but the whole is really more about the author’s relationship with his mother. I feel like it was a book with a lot of depth as Stefan wrote about the abuse he suffered from his mother but also about the love that was between them in the midst of that childhood trauma.
It’s a very well-written memoir but don’t expect it to be all about the homeschooling experience.
November 7, 2025
I was interested in this book as an educator and was not disappointed! It’s worth it for the last 40 pages alone. There were definitely a couple spots I laughed out loud, and I think the strength of this book is with the push-pull in the relationship with his mother. I feel like more could have been said about the broader context of homeschooling. Maybe a few spots, like his relationship with his dad, could have been expanded on, but perhaps the memoir wouldn’t have been as nimble as it is if he had. Anyway, I do recommend this book and would give it 3.5/5.
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