"Spring's Renewal" by Shelley Shepard Gray

Spring’s Renewal by Shelley Shepard Gray is a happy Christian romance story of how Cara, an Amish school teacher who is badly scarred from a fire sees her dreams come true.  When Tim meets Cara, he realizes he does not love his hometown sweetheart as much as he thought he did, but falls for Cara.  Although there are some obstacles to a life together, they find a way to work things out.  This is a light, heartwarming read involving balancing one’s responsibilities with the pursuit of happiness.  The main theme is “that it’s not right to judge a person by only outward looks.  Sometimes when you do that, you miss out on a lot.” It has some funny parts as well as some suspense in it.  I enjoyed it!
(Karen's review)

Read Meet Amish Romance Novelist Shelley Shepard Gray to learn about the author.

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"Work Hard, Play Nice" by Jay Matthews

Work Hard, Play Nice by Jay Matthews is about Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin who started Kipp Charter Schools, "Knowledge is Power" program.  Just two teachers starting out and all the trials, errors and then success they had.  The story of the fellow teachers and students are wonderful!  I really enjoyed this book.  Teachers will love it and maybe pick up a pointer or two.  I'd give it 10 stars out of 5.

Gerard's review 1/28/09)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"Never Blame The Umpire" by Gene Fehler

Never Blame The Umpire by Gene Fehler is a teen book about a Kate, a 16yr.-old girl who learns her mother is dying of Cancer.  She uses poetry to express her feelings and blames God for letting her mom get Cancer.  The author was an English teacher and in this book, there is a lot about Kate’s English class.  You can pick up some techniques about writing poems by reading this book. 

 

Kate and her brother, Ken, are both on the same baseball team and I thought it would be more about baseball based on the cover.  It really only mentions a couple highlights of a couple games.  Kate’s mother helps Kate deal with her death by comparing God to an umpire.    

This is a touching story.  It may be a book that someone in this situation could learn from.  It is written using first person from Kate’s perspective and I could certainly put myself in her place and understood how she felt. 

 

Personally, I did not care for all the poems and was glad when I finished it.  It was a touching story and I cried at the end.

(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Please Stop Laughing At Us: One Survivor's Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying

Jodee Blanco is a remarkable woman.  I hated to see Please Stop Laughing At Us:  One Survivor's Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying end. It was like talking to my new best friend. Finally, somebody got it right telling the story of being bullied. I admire Jodee. The work she is doing is so important! I just LOVED this book and hope you write another.

Be sure to read the emails and letters at the end of this book. They are sad, but good to know people now have someone to turn to--Jodee!

(Gerard's Review 7/1/10)

This is her second book about how she recovered from all the bullying she endured all through school and as an adult, went to talk at schools around the country to help other kids who were being bullied and help the bullies to stop. She also addressed parents and teachers.

Her advice included telling the bullied kids to stand up for themselves in a nonviolent way, find friends outside of school even if it means going outside of their school district. Parents should not just send kid for counseling but go with them. Parents need to support their kids and let the kids talk about their problems. Try to come up with an action together that will help the situation. She emphasized over and over that the advice to just ignore the bullies and they'll stop doesn't work for kids.  That is adult logic, but in reality, kids just tease all the more.

This book has a great message and offers practical help to both the bullied kids and their parents and teachers. It tells how the kids who used to pick on her in school are now her friends and she even married the most popular guy in school that all the girls liked which gives much hope to those going through the same thing. Great book!  I'd recommend every teacher read it and anyone who has been the recipient of being bullied.

(Karen's review 7/23/08)