Monday, April 17, 2023

Seven books with positive portrayals of educators

Alexandra Robbins, the author of five New York Times bestselling books, is an investigative reporter and a recipient of the prestigious John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, given by the Medill School of Journalism. In 2022, she also was honored for “Distinguished Service to Public Education.”

Robbins’s books include The Overachievers, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and People magazine Critics’ Choice; the New York Times bestseller The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital; and The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, which was voted Best Nonfiction Book of the Year in the Goodreads Choice Awards, the only people’s choice awards for books. The Geeks also won a Books for a Better Life Award.

Robbins’s latest book is The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven books with positive portrayals of teachers, including:
Sara Nović, Tru Biz

Charlie Serrano is a rebellious, Deaf 15-year-old who enrolls in a school for the Deaf, where the other kids communicate in American Sign Language, a language she hasn’t yet learned. Tru Biz, an ASL term for “real talk,” hops among the viewpoints of Charlie, her classmate Austin, and the school’s hardworking headmistress, February Waters, a child of Deaf adults. February must fight to save both her school and her marriage to a hearing wife.

As Charlie’s history teacher, February is a central figure whose lessons and assignments teach Charlie the nuances of Deaf culture and the importance of honest communication and accepting communities. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the characters, and the lessons on ASL and Deaf culture that Nović, who is Deaf herself, scatters throughout the book.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue