othercat: shader from chrono crusade standing with her back to the viewer. In the background is the Earth. (journalling this)
othercat ([personal profile] othercat) wrote in [community profile] books2011-04-27 07:59 am

Review: Close Encounters of the Third Grade Kind, Thoughts on Teacherhood, by Phillip Done

I'm extremely fond of what I think of as "job books" (memoirs that are based on the writer's professional experiences in a career, like a book by a veterinarian about his or her practice, or books about being a cop by a cop). I particularly like humorous stories and this book definitely fits the bill. Close Encounters of the Third Grade Kind is by a teacher about his experiences as a teacher, and I liked it a great deal. Done is a funny and engaging writer and his stories are the right combination of funny and heartwarming without being overly sweet or corny. (Memoirs balance out my passion for science fiction and fantasy novels.)

In this book, Phillip Done has adventures with accidentally admitting to being a teacher during a Back to School sale. (He is instantly mobbed by parents who have many, many questions they need him to answer Right Now.) He worries that cursive will go the way of the dinosaur. (He claims that he would be robbed of most of his exercise routine. Who knew that teaching cursive would require so much physical activity?) He also buys way too many things at a gift store in France for his student, hides from his students and their parents so he can get some work done and is harassed into spelling pig backwards.

Close Encounters of the Third Grade Kind

Post a comment in response:

If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org