Among Schoolchildren

by Tracy Kidder

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “ Among School Children  is more than a book about needy children and a valiant teacher; it is full of the author’s genuine love, delight and celebration of the human condition.”  — New York Times Book Review Tracy Kidder—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of  The Soul of a New Machine  and the extraordinary national bestseller  House— spent nine months in Mrs. Zajac's fifth-grade classroom in the depressed "Flats" of Holyoke, Massachusetts. For an entire year he lived among twenty schoolchildren and their indomitable, compassionate teacher—sharing their joys, their catastrophes, and their small but essential triumphs.  As a result, he has written a revealing, remarkably poignant account of education in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Teaching, Sociology, Biography, Memoir, Biography Memoir

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

John Tracy Kidder is an acclaimed American nonfiction writer best known for combining literary narrative with journalistic precision. He gained national prominence with The Soul of a New Machine (1981), a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of computer engineers at Data General, noted for its insight into the emerging tech industry and the human stories behind innovation. He later earned widespread praise for Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and humanitarian Paul Farmer, which further solidified his reputation for blending compelling storytelling with social relevance.
Kidder studied English at Harvard and earned his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Though his first book, The Road to Yuba City, was a critical failure, he rebounded with a series of successful works exploring diverse topics: home construction (House), elementary education (Among Schoolchildren), and aging (Old Friends). He also served in Vietnam, though he says the war did not significantly shape his writing, despite authoring several well-regarded essays on the topic.
In 2010, Kidder became the first A. M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. There, he co-wrote Good Prose, a book on nonfiction writing. His work continues to be recognized for its empathy, narrative strength, and commitment to truth.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book by a teacher that I worked with who told me that it was great. Newly retired, I put it on my bookshelf to read at a future date. I took it out the other day because I have had it for a while and I wanted to read it so that I could return it to her. I am glad that I did!

Having been in education for over 30 years which included the time period when this book was written I found that I could easily identify with the teacher and her thoughts and feelings as described by Kidder. Kidder observed this class for a year and also spoke with others who both knew Chris Zajac or were involved in education. He also had done research.

I could easily see myself doing similar things in a classroom. Wondering about home lives, critiquing lessons that you had done and ways they could be improved, rejoicing over some break throughs with students, encouraging children, making children feel that they are worth something and can learn etc. It is always rough when you realize that there are just some things that you can't control in a child's life but that you wish you could make better. I read some of the reviews of others and as always am discouraged when I read those which talk about how education has failed miserably. I saw teachers every day who worked so hard to make a difference in children's lives. Granted, we didn't have the power to overcome poverty or provide parents who were loving and caring or make some students at least attempt to learn the material we were teaching but we didn't give up and we did make a large difference for some of those kids whose lives we have touched. I challenge anyone to go into a classroom and attempt to do what teachers do each and every day.

One other item really struck me. In the book Kidder told a little about the history of public education. He listed a quote from Kohl which he had written at the end of his second year teaching in Harlem. "The thought of twenty-five more children the next year, twenty-five that might have a good year yet ultimately benefit little or nothing from it, depressed me. I wanted to think and to write, to discover how I could best serve the children." I guess he didn't believe that one person could make a difference in a child's life and that next year's teacher might continue the child down that road. Thank God not everyone feels that way and leaves the classroom! Kohl also wrote that during his second year he received discouraging news about students from his first class. He began to feel that other teachers and omnipresent racism had started to undo whatever good he'd done. But weren't there other good teachers that came after him perhaps that could have an equally good effect on students? And isn't one great year better than none if it can cause a child to look at himself differently - perhaps as someone capable of learning?

Thank you to all the good teachers in the classroom now and in the past, who have made a difference. Always keep in mind the students who you have effected in a positive way, always reflect on what you do in your classroom - both your lessons and how you teach children to treat one another, and don't become discouraged. You are important in the lives of your students!

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer prize-winning author (for Soul of a New Machine) with a unique style. He basically picks someone interesting, and follows them around for a year or so and records everything they do. He combines that with a lot of research and interviews and then still manages to write a book that reads almost like a novel.

In Among Schoolchildren he follows around Mrs. Zajack, who is a really good fifth-grade teacher in a really difficult school. It is fascinating to looks in on her classroom for a year and witness how a truly good teacher teaches.

In one sense, it's a very encouraging book. Mrs. Zajack is everything you hope your child's teacher will be: she works hard, cares deeply about each child, treats every child fairly, gives a lot of individual attention, manages the children's behavior well, and all of that. But it also demonstrates clearly that even a great teacher can only do so much, and that the most important factor in determining a child's success or failure is--almost without exception--their home life. That's an important "almost," though, and at the end of the year even one of the students with the most problems shows some encouraging signs of progress.

Having just married an educator, I think this book will be valuable as I try to understand my wife's work.

Now if I could just remember to return this book to the library. I probably owe $5 on it already.

[sydney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oookay. I wanted to like this because it's about a teacher, but I couldn't. Apparently it's a true story about a year in the life of a fifth grade teacher, Christine Zajac, but it's written by Tracy Kidder in a third-person limited voice. This immediately made me want to know what Kidder's methodology was, but he doesn't enlighten us anywhere in the book. He's (somewhat bizarrely, I think) totally absent from the book. This was probably intended to avoid readers' distraction at wondering how his presence impacted the events in the book. But it just left me questioning how Kidder got his information. Did he take poetic license when describing Zajac's thoughts, or did he interview her constantly? Did he sit in on classes (doubtless altering the landscape of the classroom, since kids have a hard time not reacting to extra adults in the room), or did he watch videotapes of Zajac's instruction? Did he interview kids? I wish he'd at least included this information in an appendix. Without it, the story felt like it should have been a novel, not a work of nonfiction.

But on to the story itself. It follows Zajac from the first day of school with her new class all the way to the last day in June. We meet Clarence, a problem child who eventually gets sent away to a special school for kids with behavioral problems (and whose memory haunts Zajac, who wanted to do more with him). We learn about the challenges in Zajac's school, where many students speak English as a second language, perform well below grade level, or live in dangerous areas, and where some teachers have just given up. And we see her do amazing things-- like simultaneously teach a lesson with her mouth, watch for comprehension with her eyes, correct a paper with her right hand, and stop a behavior problem by snapping the fingers on her left hand. Passages like that made me feel like I was "in" on Zajac's world.

And Zajac is a good teacher-- she pushes her students hard, thinks about whether they're actually learning and makes changes to ensure it, earns their respect by being tough, and forms relationships with them because she cares about who they are as people, not just receptacles for knowledge. And she can be pretty funny. But she also has some really irritating habits. She refers to herself in the third person: "One thing Mrs. Zajac expects from each of you is that you do your best." Sometimes she also refers to students by their names while talking to them, like: "Clarence is very smart," when talking to Clarence. She's also bear-hugging students a lot, which seems like playing with fire, but maybe it's more acceptable for teachers of younger students like hers than it is for middle- and high-school teachers.

Overall, this was an okay account of what it's like to be a teacher-- what thoughts preoccupy you in the middle of the night ("Did Jimmy write his essay?"), what feels like victory ("He got a 79!"), what it's like to have two personas every day (Mrs. Zajac at school and Chris at home). But it didn't inspire me, didn't make me want to run out and teach some kids, didn't enlighten me. I think it would be more impactful for someone who doesn't teach. For me, it felt kind of bland: Zajac is a teacher. She goes to school every day and teaches. She thinks about kids. She's been doing it a long time. Next year, she'll do it again.

I probably won't read it again.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracy Kidder is a very good writer, so I decided to go back and read some of his older stuff that I had missed. I loved The Soul of a New Machine, particularly because at the time it came out I was working as a programmer on (among other things) a Data General MV6000. This, of course, was back in the deeps of time when computers were quaint steampunkish things with valves snapping and relays clicking. I remember the thing had less than a meg of memory, for instance. We ran a whole insurance company off that thing, too. Crazy. We loved it, though, for its CPM-like operating system, command line interface called, if I remember correctly CLI. It was leaps and bounds more fun to use than the other computer we had, an IBM mainframe type that you had to write JCL for, and run jobs in batch mode. So reading a book about how the DG was designed was really awesome. Kidder has a talent for making things that might seem boring to those who aren't doing them extremely interesting. He puts you in the place of the actual designers, so you feel just as involved in the project as they are.

So, too, for this book, which puts us in the place of a very good 5th grade teacher, and makes us feel her love for all her kids, and her aspirations for them, her earnest efforts to get them to care about the things they're learning, about their academic futures, and their lives. The book made me realize, for the first time really, how important academic success is to the whole of a kid's future life, and how unfair things are, how life is rigged.

The crucial scene comes near the end, during the science fair. I remember thinking how unfair science projects were when I was in 4th or 5th grade myself. I remember watching a classmate's self-made C-earning anemometer spinning in an idle breeze from the window (none of our schools were air conditioned then) while my A-earning one made by my father required gale force winds to even turn. I remember I started working on it myself in our workshop when my dad asked what I was doing. I told him and asked his advice, since I was very unsure how to handle the rotating joint. Dad wasn't one to tell, he'd rather show, and so I watched him make the thing with a nice bearing at the pivot point. He did a great job and it looked fantastic, all neat and beautiful, when he was done. He totally deserved that A. But the bearing was a bit too tight for the application, and the dixie cups he used were only barely tapered from the opening to the flat bottom. My classmate had the conical ones that worked better. I remember thinking back then how unfair grades were. His actually worked! But until I read about Mrs. Zajak's 5th graders' science fair, it didn't hit me how indicative that is of how unfair life is altogether.

Because I had parents who cared about education, who took time with us, read to us, had books everywhere, took us to the library every Sunday, helped us with homework, and yes, built our science projects for us, because of that my sibs and I had an unfair advantage not just in grade school but throughout our lives. My engineering job pays decently but more importantly gives me something I love to work at, something that allows me scope for creativity, design, and building things. I'm so lucky to have that opportunity, and also to make enough money to have a nice home and good food, medical care, clothing, transportation, books, music, art, and computers. Being born here in the US gives me a way of life that's far healthier and richer in a million ways that most of humanity, a substantial portion of whom have no medical care at all, filthy water to drink, poor nutrition and sanitation, and inadequate shelter from the elements. Even here in this country a lot of kids have parents who are addicts, who abuse or neglect them, who don't give them the kind of enriched environment we grew up in. Why is life so rigged? How can we as a species give all kids those advantages? Why haven't we figured that out and done it yet?

We really are all the same as kids, and we all do deserve better. Shouldn't the point of having a civilization be just that? Offering to all the opportunities that now fall only to a few? Shouldn't all kids grow up into a world that's rigged in their favor like mine was?

That's the important realization that this book brought home to me. Our kids deserve more. The science project with the broken light bulb that a kid worked on himself, the one that is full of bent nails and doesn't even light, that's a symbol for me of how hard some people have to work to get so much less than I've always managed by hardly trying. It's heartbreaking.

[Nickolas Alexander Marji · Rating 5 out of 5]

boring but I miss the book and all of the great characters

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Good teachers put snags in the river of children passing by, and over the years, they redirect hundreds of lives. Many people find it easy to imagine unseen webs of malevolent conspiracy in the world, and they are not always wrong. But there is also an innocence that conspires to hold humanity together, and it is made of people who can never fully know the good that they have done."

This quote pretty much summarizes the book for me. It made me want to go thank every teacher in my life for their dedication, creativity, and patience. I fell in love with the students and their problems tugged at my heart. The book reads like a documentary, but really works well in that format. Kidder is a great nonfiction writer.

[Sangwon Hyun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite book of the year, by a large margin. I found this book at Powell's Bookstore in Portland OR as a pretty beaten-up used copy, for $5.95. An absolute steal!

I have always adored Tracy Kidder's writing, but this one resonated with me as it touched on a subject I am passionate about -- teaching.

Instead of a review, I will just leave something from the book. Narrating about a dedicated fifth grade teacher at the end of the school year who is feeling guilt about her failure to reach out to more of her children, Kidder writes:

"Good teachers put snags in the river of children passing by, and over the years, they redirect hundreds of lives. Many people find it easy to imagine unseen webs of malevolent conspiracy theory around the world, and they are not always wrong. But there is also an innocence that conspires to hold humanity together, and it is made of people who can never fully know the good that they have done."

[Almira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among Schoolchildren, by Tracy Kidder


Read in 1990


Tracy Kidder received permission to "sit" in Mrs. Zajac's 5th grade class at Kelly school in Holyoke, CO - where she grew up to become a teacher - for a whole school year. We are introduced to all her pupils, their backgrounds, their personalities, pleasures, pain and problems. One child in particular becomes not only Mrs. Zajac's "cross to bear", but the one she simply refuses to give up on. All the children become family and dear to the reader. It is a very sad day for the reader, author and teacher when Clarence is sent ot another school - one wonders what became of him.

Tracy gave us yet another well-paced, well-written book ---- good insights into terrible teaching conditions nationally at that time. Have teaching conditions changed for the better or worse? Maybe someday he will revisit this theme.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read an education book written from a 1989 viewpoint. No computers anywhere in sight - the teacher even used purple dittos. Oh for the good old days. The book (unintentionally) chronicled the breakdown in society as much as it did the educational process. Teachers used to teach, and they were able to teach. Even in 1989, thirty years ago, the teacher was expected to be social worker, empathizer to broken kids, and administrator of the discipline that parents didn't want to impose - a job made so much harder because many of her students' parents weren't on board. Zajec was a good teacher who cared about her students, and a read about her was interesting. Choppy in places due to the switching between the stories of the teacher and children, alongside histories and explanations of the migration patterns of the people in her class.

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I this read years ago in college and it absolutely rocked my world. Sadly, I immediately turned around and lent my copy to someone else, who then moved out of the state, and I haven't seen my or any other copy since. (I hope he enjoyed it.) It really is a terrific presentation of the struggles and joys of the classroom. Right now I am volunteering as an English teacher in South America, and this book keeps coming to mind--every so often find myself wondering "How would Mrs. Zajac handle this?" Even if you don't plan to be a teacher, read it. You can't help but gain a deep respect and sympathy for the heroes who give their free time, their energy, their heart to YOUR children.
Read this book, then go hug a teacher.

[Reed Stratton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immersion reporting is my favorite, and Among Schoolchildren is the immersion reportage bible. Kidder lingers in the back of a fifth grade classroom for one year with a pencil and a notebook, long enough for the children to forget about his presence and start acting real.

Not only is it a gem of immersion writing, but it also validates teachers of all grade levels throughout America as we often forget how important our job is. Kidder shows us that we may not be able to reach every kid in the classroom but the tiny differences we make can and do change the world.

Intriguing, thought-provoking, humurous and meaningful.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is entertaining, especially for fans of sentimentality. Kidder follows one teacher's classroom for a year, letting the reader get to know the teacher, most of the students, and a few others. It shows in human terms a little of problems of bigotry, poverty, and discipline. However, the book is almost purely anecdotal; Kidder occasionally discourses on general education topics, but never at any length or depth, nor with any added insight. To get a picture of one classroom, read this book; to learn about education, read something else.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

So many problems with this book, I don't know where to start. Since it is really a first hand account, it doesn't academically look at the issues of race in the classroom. The writing is limited; too much looking at what Kidder thinks the narrator means. Don't recommend.

[Sara Gabai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because it is about a teacher in Holyoke MA, where I grew up. But as a teacher myself, it was very interesting.

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book as it took me on a new perspective regarding education.

[Beth Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild read because it depicts the work life of a schoolteacher in an urban setting in Massachusetts in 1989. All the ways schools handled discipline issues and race issues in this feel SO DATED and sometimes racist. It's kind of fascinating to see the moment in time in the city of Holyoke captured by Tracy Kidder, but I also found myself skim reading big portions of this book because reading about the minutae of classroom politics and fights was not super fascinating. Also I'd rather read this from the POV of the teacher, but probably a teacher would not feel the urge to capture all the messes of a school year in a book (in their free time).

[Suanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Kidder’s nonfiction books, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World and Strength in What Remains, and decided to catch up on some of his backlist. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author with what I feel is a unique approach to his reportage. He seems to embed himself in his story for months and produces truly in-depth looks at interesting subjects.

Though Among School Children was first released in 1989, it doesn’t read as being out of date. Since I just read an article showing how far children’s education levels dropped during the Covid Pandemic, it seems more pertinent than ever. Here, Kidder embeds himself in Mrs. Zajac’s class in the “Flats” of Holyoke, Massachusetts, a depressed area and follows her class for the full school year. It shows the hours Zajac puts in at school, the more hours at home grading papers, and even more hours with disturbed sleep as she worries about her children. Just as today, many of her students are from broken homes, have poor nutrition, and/or are neglected or abused. She tries to instill a love of learning in these kids, but it’s hard to learn when you’re demoralized and hungry.

This is remarkable picture of education in America and how it is largely failing, despite teachers’ labors and love. Zajac’s school is a microcosm of what works—and doesn’t work—in our school systems. We need to address what doesn’t work before America is truly “dumbed down” to idiocy.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In September, her new students would walk in and right away become people whom she had to try to motivate and mold. Now that she was about to lose responsibility for them, they turned back into children , and she started missing them." p. 326

"You are like a drill sergeant!" A remark made to me by one of my grade six students as I led the class down the hall, walking backward, in the early days of my career.

This was my third, and probably not last, reading of Among Schoolchildren. This nonfiction book, which reads like a novel, was published in 1989, the first year that I taught. Chris Zajac, the teacher that Kidder observed for an entire year, inspired me. I also identified with her.

Like Chris, I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a teacher; I believe in fact that teaching is a calling. Like Chris, I was consumed by the challenge of trying to understand every single student. What Kidder captures so well is that the elementary school classroom is a family--a group of people living together and performing separate but interdependent roles--but even more, a classroom is a village, where people of different personalities, backgrounds, and abilities must find ways to solve problems and get along. In this wonderful book, Kidder shows us how a seasoned teacher found ways to reach her struggling students and challenge those who had greater potential. At the same time, Chris was not perfect; she admitted her mistakes to herself, which made her even more admirable to me.

Anyone who is a teacher or wants to be one would love this book!

[ejs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an elementary teacher, and this could have been my story as well. If you want a glimpse into the life of a teacher, read this. Kidder's writing is easy and straightforward. Wish that all parents and critics of this profession would read this.

[Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After spending a year watching Mrs. Zajac's fifth grade class in the run-down half Puerto Rican town of Holyoke, Massachusetts in the late 1980s, Tracy Kidder gives us an insightful look into the challenges, hopes, dreams, and tribulations involved in being a schoolteacher. By all accounts Mrs. Zajac is a wonderful teacher who finds great joy in educating her little ones, but even so she's constantly faced with troublesome children, ones from broken homes or with negligent parents, and little geniuses who don't get the attention they fully need to excel because of the demands of the classroom. We come to appreciate everything she does for her students on and off school hours and deeply empathize with her in the hard decisions she must make sometimes. The book still reads as quite fresh (although no adult really seems to have figured out what "rap music" is yet), and the chapters about the life of Puerto Rican immigrants and the history of the town add an important dimension to the story as a whole. Would recommend to anyone who is unsure about the importance of education in modern society and the role teachers play in shaping our futures.

[Navy heart HamlinNBCT · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great State to State auxiliary . A why professional development is critical to eclectic, diverse complexes read! -Scary is thinking there are actually a "Most schools have a teacher with a theory built on grudges "p51-Why even slip a toe into any school if your professional aspirations evolve around a blame game mentality.- Go directly to the source is not touched upon but kids are our most valuable commodity . I thank the Terry's who care enough to invest a year of their life researching so we can grow in into better professionals .SAHNBCT2018

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows that teaching is not just standing in front of 25 kids and talking. This book is a window on the emotional struggles that come with teaching. Working in a classroom, I realize the time constraints on teaching students while also wanting to reach them emotionally. Many of the students in this book are economically disadvantaged and the author shows their parents' lack of interest; one of the main reasons why poverty continues generation after generation. It seems this problem not only still exists but seems to have increased. My heart broke for the kids in this book that just wanted attention, and my heart breaks for some of the kids in my class who just don't have the support at home they deserve and that many of their classmates have.
As a classroom aide and an aspiring teacher, it's nice to know you're not alone in the struggle.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't quite figure out why I continued to read this book. It's about a teacher and her day to day life teaching in a poor town in Massachusetts. Today. It was so raw as to the needs and realities of the children, and her ability to reach them. I kept with it because I wanted to know if something 'amazing' happened. But really, the amazing thing is that teachers keep on teaching because they want to in face of insuperable odds. It also became a review of the public school system and how 1) it fails many, and 2) cannot reasonably be expected to accomplish the original intent, due to so many variables.

It was a plodding along book for me, left me feeling bereft of hope for a large percentage of the population to get a decent education, and not only due to the expectations of the system. Read it for a wakeup call, or for another reason to thank a good teacher!

[Marti · Rating 1 out of 5]

With a one star rating, the only reason that I finished reading this book, was that someome in our book group suugested that we read it. We had read his book, Hometown, which didn't thrill me much either. If another of his comes up as a selection, I shall just skip that month. I found it dull and boring, and rather repetitive. I have taught school. I think that the interesting parts could have made a nice article in The New Yorker. Presumably, most of us might agree that the more inteesting students are the ones with behavior problems. There are probably many people who love this book. I just am not one of them.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone left this in my laundry room and I picked it up and promptly devoured it. I don't read much non-fiction but make exceptions for immersion reporting like this one or "Friday Night Lights."

This book, which chronicles a year in the life of a determined fifth grade teacher in a public school, left me desperately curious to find out what happened to the children in her classroom all these years later (especially Judith and Clarence) but Googling has so far not been helpful. I did find out that the indomitable teacher recently retired after 35 years.

An absorbing read in the vein of "Teacher Man."

[Kathleen Payne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was exhausted reading the book and just couldn't finish reading it. The teacher is amazing, optimistic an dedicated, teaching 5th graders in a low income school, Holyoke, Mass. I just couldn't get into the book and simply didn't finish reading it. Somehow it got buried in my pile of beside books and replaced with a more interesting. I've read other Tracy Kidder books and sometimes the story can be told in fewer words. He was in the classroom day after day, taking notes, observing the teacher and students, but then "he wasn't there in presence". I never felt him in the story and I found that as a distraction. Just my opinion.

[Dawn Lennon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a real Tracy Kidder fan but this book just didn't pull me in. He wrote it in 1989, focusing on public education, the changes and problems in the system at the time, and issues around teaching low income, disadvantaged children in Holyoke, Mass. I'd spent 10 years teaching in public schools well before Kidder's book and it pained me to remember the bleak side of teaching and administrative decisions. So much has changed since then, but I don't know if it's better or worse or if anyone can really tell. Anyway, Kidder's approach made the reading cumbersome, so I abandoned the book after being about 1/3 through. His other books are wonderful.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many, many years ago but it has always remained one of my favorites because it showed me the life of a teacher - the struggles and successes. I think Tracy Kidder's words speak volumes.

"Good teachers put snags in the river of children passing by, and over the years, they redirect hundreds of lives. Many people find it easy to imagine unseen webs of malevolent conspiracy in the world, and they are not always wrong. But there is also an innocence that conspires to hold humanity together, and it is made of people who can never fully know the good that they have done." (pg. 313)

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came away from this book with an enormous curiosity about how Kidder went about writing it. Mainly, I was struck by his ability to render the reality of teaching so well. I was also reminded that good teachers often have an edge, and are willing to disliked by their students. Sometimes I need a reminder like that!

[Meade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Tracy Kidder's work. He has the ability to turn a piece of non-fiction into a riveting tale, and treats the people involved with dignity and respect. He throws himself into a situation and writes about it from the inside, not from the outside like an ordinary journalist would. This one is about a school in Holyoke, and the problems and history of the area.