Esme

Last night I finished rereading a quick little book, Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell. It’s the author’s diary from her first year of teaching in the Chicago Public Schools. It is an impossibly difficult year with a petty principal, limited support from colleagues, and terrible troubles in the lives of her 31 students. There are gang and gun issues, children who are beaten at home, children who spend far too much time alone at home, children who are hungry. It’s hard to see how anyone could face those challenges every day, and Madame Esme, as she likes to be called, lets it rip in her diary. She is crushed and overwhelmed but then buoyed by small successes. Her respect and love for each child shine through, as she pushes them to do their best and be their best.

Esme Raji Codell also has written two very good books for 9-12 year-old girls, Sahara Special and Vive le Paris, and she wrote one of my favorite books of books, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading. Check her out at her website www.planetesme.com.