Mrs. Ravenbach's Way: A Novel

Oh dear. It could have been so good. I wanted it to be so good.

Mrs. Ravenbach is a 4th grade teacher about to win her fifth Golden Apple (Teacher of the Year Award) at the McKegway School for Clever and Gifted Children. She is, as she reminds the reader on nearly every page, as German as they come. Her students run laps at recess, keep their eyes glued to the board and never, ever fidget. When Toby Wilcox joins the class midyear, he stirs things up among the beaten-down, surely Stockholm Syndromed kids in the fourth grade.

In my opinion, this book would have worked better if Mrs. Ravenbach had just admitted to herself that she hates kids. The constant, “My beautiful classroom filled with the kids I love” talk didn't gel with her comments about wanting to slap Toby and the way she made the kids brush her hair and massage her feet. A Trunchbull or a Mrs. Hannigan character (who wear their kid-hatred on their sleeve) would have done much better I think.