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A review by sde
Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden
3.0
Fun book that MAYBE is satire, but is so true to what my kids have experienced in their urban schools (minus the Teach for America types, which they don't have), that I hesitate to call it satire. It is often so true to life that it is both funny and not funny at the same time because our teachers and kids are actually experiencing this horrible stuff. For example, when the kids have to circle words that will tell them whether something is past or future tense, when they are given directions on how to write a "good" essay on the standardized tests, or when they have to say what the author's purpose is. Just a couple of months ago my daughter was working with a kid she is mentoring on the last thing. The boy had to determine whether the author's purpose was to explain, argue a point or entertain. The answer was supposed to be "to entertain." The kid took umbrage at that because the reading "wasn't entertaining at all."
It can seem as though the author is relying on stereotypes, except that I have encountered almost every person depicted in the book.
This was hard to rate. If you haven't had direct contact with schools, especially urban schools, in the past 10 years or so, this book might seem really dull or forced. The humor is very specific to this setting.
This book was not closely edited. There were some obvious typos, which made me wonder what else was missed. There were a number of things that could be considered offensive in it, but I think that was supposed to be part of the satire.
It can seem as though the author is relying on stereotypes, except that I have encountered almost every person depicted in the book.
This was hard to rate. If you haven't had direct contact with schools, especially urban schools, in the past 10 years or so, this book might seem really dull or forced. The humor is very specific to this setting.
This book was not closely edited. There were some obvious typos, which made me wonder what else was missed. There were a number of things that could be considered offensive in it, but I think that was supposed to be part of the satire.