A well-researched, disheartening, yet relentlessly hopeful examination of American public schools.
A former teacher assesses the problems that plague public schools in the United States in this debut education book.
During her tenure teaching elementary math in Baltimore County public schools, DeMallie was time and again “a teacher without a voice.” Her own professional opinions, based on the interests of the students she knew best, were constantly vetoed by the schools’ administrations. Tired of seeing how the public school system itself “enabled the problem and failed to provide a solution,” the author resigned after seven years in the classroom to become a national voice for education reform. This book’s first half identifies some of the major issues confronting America’s public schools, ranging from corrupt superintendents to the misapplication of technology. DeMallie’s nuanced analysis tackles the controversial Common Core, noting areas where it “benefits” students but also highlighting spots where it falls short of its intended goals. Even America’s century-old grading system is put under the microscope, as the author encourages readers to ask if “grades motivate students” to learn or even are accurate reflections of their knowledge. The second half of the volume centers on “Ten Steps To Improve Public Education,” which range from mental fortitude (“be resilient” and “focus on the positive”) to pragmatic tips, such as the efficacy of teacher microphones in reducing academic and behavioral issues. DeMallie’s rigorous analysis is often accompanied by anecdotes from her time in the classroom as well as her own experiences as a parent whose son initially struggled in school due to a hearing issue. These vignettes, combined with the author’s conversational yet informed writing style, make for an approachable read. Designed to spawn future parent/teacher activists, the book also includes questions for small group discussions as well as practical advice on how individuals can speak up and make changes on a local and even national level (as DeMallie did as the founding director of the Institute of Classroom Hearing). While some may disagree with the author’s suggestion to not “rely on politicians” for reform, this is a remarkably well-written, balanced, and impassioned case for change.
A well-researched, disheartening, yet relentlessly hopeful examination of American public schools.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-54-451796-4
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.
An actor and comedian tells the story of her journey from being an unpaired “animal” to a “new mammal mother” in love.
After Slate completed her first book, “the issue of finding a partner…never rested and never allowed rest for [her] either.” Senses heightened, she had stepped into her most animal self and was on a quest to “fulfill [her] mammal instincts.” Loneliness and emotional vulnerability made her seek connection with neighborhood dogs and insights from books that promised to bring soulmates. When love did finally find her, the anxiety that he would reject her for being herself and “drinking tequila on a Saturday afternoon…then [having] a bath with my friend” was intense. After the pair became a couple and Slate became pregnant with the baby she called “the lifeform,” her neuroses—which the author mocks through an imaginary session with a psychologist—went into overdrive. Yet even as she wrestled with her fears, Slate also discovered that the body that was so often a “bay of doubt” was also becoming a “harbor of well-being” for the life-form to which she was attached. Then, during a time of “plague and disruption,” the author “exploded [her] vagina” to give birth, becoming not only a mother, but a “mammal with a soul that [was] born anew every day.” Though still haunted by a “purple-dark hole marking me in the afternoons,” Slate had become secure enough in the “nest” she had built for herself to see the hole more as a “bluish egg-thing” portending possibility. At times whimsical in its flights of fancy and always surprising in the moments of lyrical grace it offers, Slate’s book celebrates the transformative power of surrendering to love and life.
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780316263931
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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