book cover of Ms. Hempel Chronicles
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Ms. Hempel Chronicles

(2008)
A novel by

 
 
Awards
PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction Best Book (nominee)
Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new - new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work. Is it acceptable to introduce swear words into the English curriculum, enlist students to write their own report cards, or bring up personal experiences while teaching a sex-education class?

As in Madeleine Is Sleeping, Sarah Bynum finds characters at their most vulnerable then explores those precarious moments in sharp, graceful prose. From this most innovative of young writers comes another journey down the rabbit hole to the wonderland of middle school, memory, daydreaming, and the extraordinary business of growing up.

Genre: General Fiction

Praise for this book

"Pure Pleasure." - Jonathan Franzen

"When I opened this charming novel, I fell in love with it..." - Carolyn See


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