Tag Archives: Book Reviews

Chalkboard books part of collections of numerous prestigious libraries

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I always get excited when I learn that one of my books has been added to the collection of a prestigious university library. A search of WorldCat reveals that both of my books have been added to the collections of numerous prestigious university libraries.

My first book, Chalkboard Champions (Wheatmark: 2012), has been added to the library of West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia, and to the library of Queensboro Community College in Bayside, New York. It is also a part of the collection of the twelve other academic libraries. These include the University of Arizona, Tucson; University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, Hawaii; the City University of New York in New York, New York; and Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. The volume is also part of the collection of the libraries of Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota; the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and the State University of New York in Oswego, New York. The book is also available at Hunter College in New York, New York; Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey; Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts; and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. In addition, it is part of the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Chalkboard Heroes (Wheatmark: 2015) has been added to the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The volume is also included in the collections of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California; Chadron State University in Chadron, Nebraska; the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and the University of Chicago Library in Chicago, Illinois. The volume can also be found in the Alaska State Library in Juneau, Alaska; Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana; and Central Connecticut State Library in New Britain, Connecticut.

Many thanks to all these prestigious libraries for honoring my work!

Unleashed makes a terrific story for your students to read

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Author Terry Lee Marzell and her fur baby, Kurby, share Unleashed! The Dog Park Chronicles Photo Credit: Hal Marzell

The upcoming school year is a terrific time to encourage your students to pick up a leisure reading book, or read one aloud to them during class!  I suggest my most recent book, Unleashed! The Dog Park Chronicles, which is now available in both paperback and ebook versions from amazon.comand barnesandnoble.com. This is my first novel for young people. But the volume has also garnered praise from both children and adults who have read it and loved it!

In the book, I have created a charming cast of animal characters and their human companions who live in or visit the local dog park. Each event which takes place holds an essential message about kindness, community, inclusion, and personal responsibility. There are also messages of anti-bullying and anti-prejudice.

In addition, the narrative includes commentary about how young people can appreciate nature, even if they live in a suburban environment. I explore themes related to the migratory patterns of Canada geese, the natural instincts of the animal characters, and the progression of the seasons.

The dog park described in the novel, Vila Borba, really exists! It is located not far from my home in Chino Hills, California. And depicted on the cover of the book are two of my very own pets! The little white terrier mix on the front cover is Kurby, whose rescue story is described in Chapter 4. (In the book the Kurby character is named Bowser.) The elegant black and white tuxedo pictured on the back cover is my own ladycat, Licorice.

This 156-page book would make a terrific book to read. If you have already purchased the book, thank you so much! I hope you would consider writing a review of the story on amazon. I am also asking for support to offer an AR (Accelerated Reading) quiz for the story. You could make a request for this at the AR website.

Have a great school year!

Pat Conroy’s award-winning memoir about his teaching experiences on remote SC island

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Periodically I come across a book about teachers that I’d like to share with you, and I have one to share today. The book is The Water is Wide by former teacher Pat Conroy (1945—2016). The award-winning memoir was published in 1972, the first of several acclaimed works he authored.

In 1969, Pat taught African American students in grades five through eight in a two-room school house on a remote island off the coast of South Carolina. He was a young, idealistic teacher, but not entirely inexperienced, since he had previously taught English and psychology courses at his high school alma mater, Beaufort High School, in Beaufort, South Carolina. And remember, he was teaching at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir. I found it to be an interesting study in what were, in 1969, highly innovative instructional methods. Many of these methods have become accepted and commonplace in today’s classrooms, but in those days they were quite controversial. I was especially interested in Pat’s experiments with experiential learning (a topic which just happens to be the subject of my own Master’s thesis), student-driven curriculum, the introduction of speakers, and an informal classroom environment.

Most importantly, Pat treated his students with unconditional positive regard, and refused to utilize a paddle to maintain classroom discipline. By contrast, his principal, who taught the younger students in the two-room school house, espoused a more traditional teaching style, including textbook-driven instruction, drill tasks, and strict and rigid discipline—which included corporal punishment. And, quite frankly, she didn’t appear to even like her students. She certainly didn’t treat them with any respect. Naturally, Pat’s instructional style caused friction between himself and the school district bureaucrats. I’ll leave it to you to discover how this friction was addressed.

The Water is Wide garnered a humanitarian award from the National Education Association in 1974 and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1973. Two movies based on the book, Conrack starring John Voight in 1974 and a Hallmark production in 2006.

Learn more about Pat Conroy’s life at his website, patconroy.com. You can purchase The Water is Wide on amazon.com.

 

How educators might respond to Hurricane Helene

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At this time, empathetic Americans are looking for ways to help fellow citizens recover and rebuild their lives following the destruction of yet another devastating hurricane. Hurricane Helene has caused widespread damage in five state, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. More than 140 people have lost their lives and an estimated 2.6 million homes and businesses are without power.

As I usually do during times such as these, I ask myself questions about what the teachers are doing during these times of upheaval. In this instance, I am reminded of a book I read recently which described a remarkable teacher who opened a school for New Orleans evacuees following Hurricane Katrina.

When surging flood waters from Hurricane Katrina forced thousands of families to flee from their homes in 2005, New Orleans residents had their minds more on survival than on whether their children would be missing school. But when a group of evacuee parents who landed in New Iberia, Louisiana, realized they would not be returning to their homes any time soon, they came to the conclusion that they had to find a strategy to help their children cope with their enforced and unexpected exile. They pooled their financial resources and hired a fellow refugee, teacher Paul Reynaud, to establish a one-room school for their children in an abandoned office building. The story furnishes valuable lessons for dealing with this latest example of nature’s fury.

The book is entitled Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember. The author of this intriguing true story is journalist Michael Tisserand, and the volume was published in 2007 by Harcourt. You can find the book on amazon.com.

For other intriguing stories about remarkable teachers in America’s sometimes turbulent history, check out my book Chalkboard Champions. You will find it on the web site for Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Great Black History Month read: Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals

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Like many teachers, I am always interested in learning more about historical events relating to the education of America’s disenfranchised students. Black History Month is a great opportunity to zero in on the education of our African American students. To learn more about this topic, there are many excellent books you can add to your reading list. Here’s a well-told first-person account about struggles of African American students in Arkansas at the onset of the Civil Rights Movement. The book is Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of nine heroic African American students known as famous Little Rock Nine.

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education which declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Three years later, the schools of Little Rock, Arkansas, were still segregated. A plan for gradual integration generated an intensely hostile response from Little Rock’s staunch segregationists. Nevertheless, nine courageous African American students were selected to challenge the status quo and integrate the city’s Central High School.  Clinging stubbornly to Jim Crow tradition, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block the entrance of the nine black students into the school, and, in response, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and charged the troops with protecting the lives of the nine and enforcing the Supreme Court’s ruling. Every school day that year, the Little Rock Nine braved angry mobs spewing hostilities, racial epithets, and threats to their lives simply for seeking the right to enter their school.

This book, Warriors Don’t Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High, tells the story of Melba Pattilllo Beals, one of those valiant nine students. When you read this compelling account, you wonder how any kid could have that much fortitude. This book is a great read for teachers, students, and history buffs. You can acquire a copy of Warriors Don’t Cry from amazon.