Educated - Tara Westover

The importance of being little - Erika Christakis

Where you go is not who you'll be - Frank Bruni

Where you go is not who you'll be - Bruni, Frank

Summary: "Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no. That belief is wrong. It's cruel. And in WHERE YOU GO IS NOT WHO YOU'LL BE, Frank Bruni explains why, giving students and their parents a new perspective on this brutal, deeply flawed competition and a path out of the anxiety that it provokes. Bruni, a bestselling author and a columnist for the New York Times, shows that the Ivy League has no monopoly on corner offices, governors' mansions, or the most prestigious academic and scientific grants. Through statistics, surveys, and the stories of hugely successful people who didn't attend the most exclusive schools, he demonstrates that many kinds of colleges-large public universities, tiny hideaways in the hinterlands-serve as ideal springboards. And he illuminates how to make the most of them. What matters in the end are a student's efforts in and out of the classroom, not the gleam of his or her diploma. Where you go isn't who you'll be. Americans need to hear that-and this indispensable manifesto says it with eloquence and respect for the real promise of higher education"-- Provided by publisher.

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Lifetime - Lola Schaefer

Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives - Schaefer, Lola

A counting primer combines contrasting illustrations with animal facts that invite young children to count a woodpecker's thirty roosting holes, a giraffe's two hundred spots, and one thousand baby seahorses.

Booklist Reviews
Schaefer combines her interest in animals and her fascination with numbers, using sparse text to introduce both animals and a numerical fact about a specific characteristic of each animal. An introduction provides the caveat that approximations differ depending on many factors in the life of the animal. The text is matter-of-fact, and the colors of the mixed-media illustrations subdued, but they complement each other in tone. It takes a bit to realize that Neal's illustration for each animal matches the number Schaefer uses in the text. For instance, the illustration for sea horses has 1,000 "teeny-weeny, squiggly-wiggly baby sea horses." (Feel up to counting all of them?) Thankfully, as part of the back matter, Schaefer adds detailed information about each animal and its life span, how she calculated the estimations she uses throughout the book, two animal math problems to solve, and more. Fills a clever niche for both animal science and mathematics.

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I apologize to every teacher I ever had - Tony Danza

I apologize to every teacher I ever had: my year as a rookie teacher at Northeast High - Danza, Tony

Summary: Television, screen and stage star Tony Danza's absorbing account of a year spent teaching tenth-grade English at Northeast High -- Philadelphia's largest high school with 3600 students.


Booklist Reviews
Not a whole lot of people tuned into the 2010 reality-TV series Teach. But those who did saw the Who's the Boss? star, who had long dreamed of teaching English, suffer reality checks so brutal he regularly broke down in tears. Danza's memoir of his year working at Philadelphia's biggest public school hews closely to the show, from his sweat-drenched first day to his ineffective class clowning to the harsh reprimands from a principal unafraid to toss him out. Dealing with just one-fifth of a typical teacher's workload, Danza indulges in grandiose lesson plans—talent shows, poetry slams, etc.—and yet he is still racked with daily anxiety. This is a breezy read, and when Danza isn't duking it out with the TV producer (who worries they have a boring show), he is able to shed light on a number of the underreported struggles teachers face: dealing with adoption fantasies, reporting sexual abuse, and breaking up fights, among them. A memorable exchange features a student telling Danza to grow some balls, but it took significant cojones for him to even try teaching. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Paul Tough

Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Tough, Paul

Summary: An intriguing portrait of African-American activist Geoffrey Canada, creator of the Harlem Children's Zone, describes his radical new approach to eliminating inner-city poverty, one that proposes to transform the lives of poor children by changing their schools, their families, and their neighborhoods at the same time.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Canada has captured national attention with his bold effort to offer a cradle-to-college program for thousands of underprivileged children in Harlem. Tough, a New York Times Magazine writer, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the dramatic ups and downs of the Harlem Children's Zone, a $58 million project encompassing 97 city blocks and serving 7,000 children. Tough details Canada's own personal struggle out of poverty as a motivating factor for getting into the kid-saving business. Canada devised a conveyor belt from preschool through elementary and middle schools in Promise Academy, offering enrichment programs for children and parents to compensate for their disadvantages compared to middle-class families. Tough focuses on individual families and staff to tell a compelling story of a neighborhood fighting mightily to provide its children with the educational benefits of more well-to-do communities. Tough also views Harlem Children's Zone in the broader context of raging debate among academics and economists from James Heckman to Glen Loury regarding causes and cures of urban poverty and low school performance. This is an engrossing look at a visionary man and a bold experiment that has caught the eye of a wide range of politicians, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has promised to replicate the program throughout the U.S. if elected. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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