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Learn Me Gooder (2000)

by John Pearson(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 4

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English

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review 1: What a riot! I loved this book for so many reasons. I enjoy the references to movies et al ESPECIALLY to THE GOONIES (my all time favorite). In addition, as a special ed. teaching assistant for many years, I could identify (and could have written) some of the anecdotes. The book may have been fiction, but to me it was reality in its truest form.Following the turn of the last page (borrowed, again from my daughter), I promptly added the book to my Kindle so I could return to Jack's classroom at will.
review 2: Memoirs are my favorite genre. I love learning about people's lives, hearing their stories, digging into themselves with them. I find the whole genre fascinating. I first heard about this author when I stumbled on a post on his blog and bought his book, Le... morearn Me Good, after reading a funny and heart-filled blog post. I got distracted and it took almost a year before I finally read it. I won't rehash it, but I absolutely loved it. Heck, I even bought a paperback copy for the teachers at my kid's school to read and pass around (they continue passing it around and giggling madly). John's latest offering is one of the best made follow ups that I have ever read. In some ways, it's more of the same, but in other ways, it's an expansion into John's life as a teacher, his life as a writer, his trademark humor and his heart. I believe there are several ways you could take this book after reading it. You could take away that it's a group of humorous stories by a teacher. That's that. BUT I think if you are truly reading this book (and especially if you know anything about the teaching profession and/or have read his first book), you're going to walk away with so much more of Mr. Pearson.I laughed when I read this book. It's no secret that the author has an amazing sense of humor. He's just downright funny. Yeah, sometimes he tries too hard - but he's a bit of a geek, so he pulls it off very well. I also smiled when I read this book. You can feel the genuine love that he has for his students. He actually cares about them and their welfare and he enjoys every minute of his career (well, okay maybe not ALL of it - but every moment in the classroom!). I also cried when I read this book. Cried with laughter, of course, but also for a few tender moments when the author's heart really shined through. Oh, he keeps throwing humor at us to try to hide it, but it's there and you cannot help but feel honored that he's sharing this with us.I also was confused when I read this book. This is a tough one for me because I get the memoir thing. His memoirs are about his time in the classroom. But I love that he gives us insight into his personal life a little as well (his dating life, etc). What I really am confused about here is that I want more. I realize that borders on prying, but I feel like there's more to HIS story and it makes me curious. But I also don't want him to spoil it and take himself too far out of the classroom. I think this may be why the email format of these books work so well, he's able to drop notes about what he does with his buddy as well as what's going on in his life and quickly move on to his teacher life again before we get too bogged down. As I said, I'm confused on what I want here.At the end of the day, this is a hilariously written, absolutely beautiful memoir that makes me realize that not all books are straight forward. Sometimes you have to dig down into them to read between the lines.I highly highly recommend this book to just about anyone. If you're looking for a teacher gift, I think this would be a great idea to give someone (well, the set of two). If you want something funny to read, this is it. If you just want something to read that is easy to put down and pick up, yet un-put-down-able, well, this is the book for you as well. Seriously. Just go read it. This book falls onto my "Must Read" list for the year.Mr. Pearson - you done good.Note: John did offer me a preview copy, which I did indeed read. I still bought a fresh copy, with my own funds, to have in my Kindle account. It really was just THAT good. less

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