"...Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion." ~Madonna

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Book Review: AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN

Reading a Tracy Kidder book always makes me feel richer. He has the talent to take on global issues and personalize them. Mountains Beyond Mountains introduced us to real life hero Doctor Paul Farmer and world health concerns. What Strength Remains  brings to light the genocide in Burundi and Rwanda through the eyes of a young survivor. Recently, I read an earlier book by Kidder titled Among Schoolchildren and again was impressed by the detail and caring that he puts into his work.

Tracy Kidder spent nine months with Christine Padden Zajac and her class of fifth graders. The school was located in the depressed "flats" of Holyoke, Massachusetts and the twenty students were a mixture of ethnic families, academic abilities and behavioral challenges. As the school year progresses, we get to understand the work and energy that a compassionate, but indomitable, teacher gives to her students.

As any teacher will tell you, there are humorous as well as heartbreaking moments in a class room. Some moments require a hidden grin and others make for full -out- laughter. The painful moments come with the student that is beyond a teacher's help and must be removed to a more "structured" situation or, the talented student who falls through the cracks, never to be seen again.  There were days that Mrs. Zajac felt that discipline was taking up most of her time  and that some students were being cheated out of the education that they so badly needed.

 Author Kidder has the talent to sit back, allow the reader to observe and end up as involved as Mrs. Zajac was with her class. Each student became an individual. Sometimes, we meet the parents and have a better understanding of why the child's behavior is self destructive or defensive. Sometimes, we know  the "why"by the parent's never showing for a parent teacher conference.

A scene that I found particularly touching was the school's science fair. The students who had parents who were involved did well, won the prizes; it was easy to spot the students with non-involved families who felt like failures. For this reason, Mrs. Zajac made it a point to try to have such competitions eliminated from the school's schedule.

Among Schoolchildren was published in 1989 and I would like to think that it is a bit dated by now. On a class trip to a village set in 1830, it is noted that, except for the inkwells, the classroom was very familiar. It seems that public education has not changed much.

Also very touching were some of the facts that the author threw in now and then. The quotes from over the centuries of what education should be were very idealistic, but still a long way from reality. We may have become more aware of sexual abuse, the numbers are still very high, and althought teachers have recieved better training on how to regognize abuse, their hands are tied if there is not some kind of evidence.

Among Schoolchildren is a beautiful tribute to our teachers. Good teachers should have public monuments built in their honor and the undying respect of the community. Tracy Kidder once again shows us the human side of something we tend to take for granted.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Book Review: THEY DISAPPEARED

It is always fun to find a "new" author and I just read my first book by Rick Mofina. The title, They Disappeared, gave me a hint of what the story line might be, so I was ready for a fast action afternoon.

Jeff Griffin and his wife, Sarah have come to New York City  to give Cole, their nine-year-old son, a trip that he has been dreaming about. Jeff also hopes to repair his marriage. Jeff and Sarah's relationship had been badly torn apart by the death of their infant daughter and he feels that returning to the place where they had first gotten to know each other might help them.The family arrives in Manhattan as the city prepares for a meeting at the United Nations that involves the top leaders of the world.

At the airport, Cole's backpack is accidentally switched with an identical backpack. The correction is made, but one toy is forgotten. Later, as the family is taking pictures on Times Square, Jeff steps into a shop to get batteries for the camera and when he returns to the street he finds that his wife and son have disappeared. The usual life and death search takes us all over New York City and introduces us to many colorful characters...good and bad.

For me, They Disappeared was a bit of a disappointment. The story had a lot going for it. Jeff's frantic search for his family is richly colored by his feelings about the death of his baby girl and his need to talk to his wife before she is killed. Cole and Sarah are both real and sympathetic characters. Actually, author Mofina also did a very good job of making us understand and feel for the kidnappers.

The problem was too much description of how the police and the federal agents interacted. Getting to know the agencies working on a case can be a good thing and it can be informative to learn how these agencies cooperate. But, I felt over whelmed by the mass of details and the names of all the people involved. Some times too many characters weaken a book, even if the characters are well drawn. At times, these details ruined the flow of the action for me.

This is not to say that I will not try another book by Rick Mofina. His list of titles is long and this may have been a case of his needing to get a book published because the mortgage was due. Sometimes an author's earlier work is his best. We will check that out.