After each email ended, I was faced with a conundrum: keep reading on or stop and save the rest for later, savoring each email like a piece of fine chocolate. I wanted to keep reading on, but didn't want this book to end!

I stumbled across this book on Lulu as I searched for books with the same themes as mine (humor, education). The book preview was enough to convince me to buy the book--I liked the author's style of humor and the writing was good.

This book is hilarious! I especially like how the author uses references from previous chapters in subsequent ones, adding to the comedy by making the reader feel like a story insider.

I have so many favorite lines, but I think "Calls me Ishmaels" takes the cake! I hope this author writes more in the future!

Learn Me Good tracks the weekly correspondence sent between Jack Woodson and his former co-worker, Fred Bommerson. Having been laid off by Heat Pumps Unlimited, a thermal design firm in Texas, Jack pursues a new career path, spurred by the enjoyment he's always derived from working with kids. A natural at math & science, he becomes a third-grade teacher, embarking upon new adventures in public education - the magnitude of which he can only imagine.

Jack quickly adapts to his new responsibilities, quipping to Fred about the status report he'll soon send to the Alumni Office at his alma mater, Duke University:

"Jack M. Woodson (Duke engineering, class of `95) is currently living and working in Dallas, TX. He has forty children, and all of them have different mothers."

Thus begins Pearson's tale, an engaging study in the real education that goes on in the classroom, outside of textbooks and morning announcements. Learn Me Good draws you in with how easily Jack's experiences with eight- and nine-year-old children parallel our own with full-grown adults everyday.

Without apology, Pearson takes jabs at every aspect of what passes for normal among today's childrearing practices. He even pulls off this commentary on the conduct of a school district representative assigned to check the students' eyesight with sardonic aplomb:

"She felt that some kids may not WANT to wear glasses, so she made her pitch, and I quote: 'I think glasses are SEXY!'...Should you really use the word 'sexy' around eight- and nine-year-olds? It's like airing a commercial for Bacardi rum in the middle of an episode of Sesame Street (Today's episode is brought to you by the letter B and the number 151!)"

And consider this assessment of the real priorities of today's youth:

"Chassity had been caught writing a note to one of the other girls. The gist of the note was basically 'You're a witch. Who's a witch? You are, you witch.' And on, and on. Only, she didn't use the word 'witch,' instead preferring a more socially unacceptable rhyming word. Kelly and I had joked about the fact that nearly all of the words in the note were misspelled EXCEPT for that one word."

Pearson tramps the hallowed ground of public education with piercing wit and unrelenting irreverence, giving it a not-so-good-natured - but much needed - ribbing. He even takes a fair swipe at the current presidential approach to education:

"No Child Left Behind? No Child Left Untested Till He's Blue In The Face is more like it"

It's not always fun and games, though. Throughout his narrative, Pearson does an effective job of pointing out the various nuances of public education that rarely bring about smiles and laughter. Chief among these is the concept of mobility rate: the tendency of students to enroll and withdraw at the school at an alarming frequency. He even goes so far as to make the point that merely weeks into the new school year some teachers could have an entirely different class of students, which often makes them ruefully aware of the attachments that come and go:

"Why can't the good ones stay?? I know, I'm being selfish, I'll admit it. I'm just afraid when a good kid leaves, because it just opens a hole for another Mark Peter to come in."

Considering the fact that Mark Peter routinely steals teachers' items and physically terrorizes other students, one can hardly blame Jack for this sentiment.

Timely, insightful, and absolutely hilarious, Learn Me Good needs to be required reading for anyone considering teaching as a profession. Much like the crip notes for War & Peace, it's an indispensable guide to all the real training you'll never formally get.

I finished this book in less than two hours. It was so hilarious, it actually brought tears to my eyes...I haven't laughed so hard at a book in YEARS!

What makes Pearson's story so enjoyable for me is that I can relate to it on such a personal level. I visit elementary schools and conduct poetry workshops for third graders all the time, and Pearson writes many of his anecdotes as if he were a fly on the wall. It's uncanny how he captures the realities of life inside the classroom in such a hilarious - but true - fashion. He truly has a gift for writing, and I can't wait to read more from him as his literary career progresses.

I'm friends with alot of the 3rd grade teachers whose classes I visit, and I've already started recommending Learn Me Good to them. Get this book today!

Of all the quasi-autobiographical literature written by personal friends of mine, this is easily the funniest book I've ever read.

John has a pretty quick wit in person, but really blossoms in print. I laughed out loud many times, which was very annoying for my wife, in bed late at night.

I'm not a teacher, but I am an engineer. The reason I keep talking about myself is that John's vignettes about the life of an elementary school teacher are very funny to those outside the field of education, as well. The stories of "Lucifer" and the other problem children are funny, sure, but they also offer a glimpse at what a teacher has to put up with, that most of the general public doesn't think about.

But enough of the social commentary. This is funny stuff. Buy one for each bathroom.

I have been a teacher for 12 years now, and I can relate completely to just about everything that happens in this hilarious book. From the kids with bathroom issues, to the wrestling maneuvers, and yes, even to dealing with parents who are experiencing a chemical high.
What makes Learn Me Good so readable is not just the stories, but how they are woven together. The use of e-mails is brilliant, and the way that they are constantly referenced and tied back into one another is what captivates your attention. Not to mention, the subject lines and the signoff signatures are hysterical!
I will be recommending this book to all of my friends, that's for sure.

A must be read book for ALL teachers!! The situations and experiences described in “Learn Me Good” are not taught in ANY Education course. You must LIVE, SUFFER, and ENDURE them in your own skin!! ONLY educators can truly understand why anyone in his/her right mind would keep going back for more daily pain and suffering at the hands of the "little people". “Learn Me Good” is funny, a little sarcastic, but very, very real for us teachers.
Irma Zambrano

I wanted to read a chapter or two of Learn Me Good before going to bed one evening, but I kept laughing and saying to myself, "Just one more chapter." Well, an hour and a half later I had finished the book and went to bed giggling.

Although I'm not a teacher, I think anyone can relate to the humor artfully presented in Learn Me Good. Who can't relate to the challenges of starting a new career and learning how to navigate the jungle (well, chalkboard jungle in this case)?

The email journal format is unique as well as the creative subject headings and sign-offs. The novelty does not wear off, but rather feels personally warmer and familiar as the book progresses.

My mother will retire in one month after 16 years of teaching elementary school kids. I'm giving her this book as her retirement gift and will be recommending it to many others.

Happy reading and laughing!

This review is in response to a forum request, and comes after reading only the preview.

Whatever category this book is listed in (not apparent from the content page), it should be "American Humor." The preview intersperses quips and one-liners nicely with serious narrative, positioning the best ones at the ends of paragraphs and sometimes using mid-paragraph humour to build up to what comes at the end. So, as humour, it gets a fairly high rating.

Epistolary fiction isn't easy to do well, and the author shows skill at it. On the other hand, this book is a bit of a testimonial, which is IMO a lower form of life in the writing taxonomy.

The book might sell better if it were available as a $4 download as well as a $12 hardcopy. Potential readers who don't have an interest in schoolteaching but do enjoy humour (such as myself) might be more likely to buy it then.

It's my sister's first year as a teacher and I wanted to give her something inspired. Something she could use like a handbook for the newly initiated educator. So I searched and searched and finally found it in Learn Me Good.
Jack Woodson, our hero, gives a play by play account of his life as a teacher and it is nothing short of hilarious. From the fish stick flinging food fights, to the parent teacher conferences with two mothers, or wait, was that two brothers... even Jack didn't know for sure. The book is full of wit, clever dialogue and page turning stories that keep you from wanting to put it down.
It was the perfect gift. So much so my sister wouldn't even let me borrow it, so I had to buy my own.
I hope there is a year two on the way.