From: Patrick Jones <thingschangenovel>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 20:07:25 -0700 (PDT)

Okay, to the contrary.
  I just read and reviewed Teacher's Funeral for VOYA (Voice in Youth Advocates) magazine (www.voya.com) and you are right: it is beautifully written story. But it is not great and it certainly ain't funny. Doesn't a great book for teens need to be readable and enjoyable and even a little relevant? I can't imagine any teen reading this on their own unless forced to by a teacher, and to me, that's not a great book. And while humor is SO subjective, the Hee Haw guffaws in here I just don't see working in a hop hop infused teen culture.
  Patrick Jones www.connectingya.com
 


Robin Smith wrote: Since I'm a teacher (7th & 8th grade English), I've enjoyed the recent discussion. I don't recall if anyone has mentioned Richard Peck's forthcoming The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts. It opens with one of the great lines in literature: "If yo ur teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of the year for it." I've shared the first chapter many times already -- at conferences, workshops, etc. What a great, funny, beautifully-written story that ultimately is, despite the title, a celebration of teachers. What a fine body of work Richard Peck has created; his last five novels are all favorites of mine.
  Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at some.place



Patrick Jones Things Change: A teen novel (Walker, 2004) http://www.connectingya.com/thingschange.html

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Received on Tue 28 Sep 2004 10:07:25 PM CDT