Been There, Done That: School Dazed

Been There, Done That #2

by Mike Winchell, Églantine Ceulemans (Illustrator)

School is in session as celebrated authors share their real-life academic experiences and turn them into fiction!

To some kids, school means homework, bus rides, or band practice. To others it means bullies, tough teachers, or pranking the substitute. In this second collection in the Been There, Done That series, authors describe a standout story from their school days. As with the first anthology, each author will contribute a narrative nonfiction account that serves as the inspiration for an original fictional short story. The contributing award-winning and best-selling middle-grade authors include Holly Goldberg Sloan, Kelly Starling Lyons, Tommy Greenwald, Wendy Mass, Bruce Hale, Jacqueline West, Ellen Yeomans, Vince Evans, Nate Evans, Sarah Prineas, Steve Sheinkin, Shaun Hutchinson, Don Tate, Varian Johnson, Howard Cruse, Meg Medina, and Bruce Coville.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 23, 2016

About the author

Mike Winchell is a veteran educator with a master's degree in educational leadership. He is the creator & editor of the BEEN THERE, DONE THAT anthology series, and the award-winning author of the young adult narrative nonfiction book, THE ELECTRIC WAR: EDISON, TESLA, WESTINGHOUSE, AND THE RACE TO LIGHT THE WORLD. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two children. mikewinchellbooks.com

Reviews

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Meg Medina’s contribution.

[Dan Allbery · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my goals this year as a reader is to read more short stories. It has been a genre that I've never dabbled in much, but as a teacher, could be an amazing resource to find quick mentor texts. Been There, Done That: School Dazed has many positive attributes. The structure of the book is a teacher's dream. Each chapter begins with a 2-3 page real life experience that happened to each author followed by a fiction story inspired by the real experience. The book has such a variety of stories including: fantasy, realistic fiction, story in verse, and graphic novel/comic. The text would be a great aid for students to convert a personal narrative into a fiction piece. You can definitely tell that the editor Mike Winchell is an English teacher himself.

That being said...

The fictional stories read very young and lack any type of depth. As I read one story after the another I became less and less enthused about using this as a mentor text. The two I most recommend are "The Test/The Big Bully Backfire" by Vince and Nate Evans and given that I am a teacher overseas, Tommy Greenwald's "How to Make Friends in a Foreign Country/American Boy." Recommended for grades 5-6 (possibly GR 7 as well).