Customer Reviews

Crossing the Water: Eighteen Months on an Island Working With Troubled Boys -- A Teacher's Memoir

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There is a small Island in Buzzard's Bay that isn't a vacation resort. It was once a leper colony and is now a kind of prison.

Dan Robb, a version of today's Renaissance Man, crosses the water to teach at Penikese Island School, a community for delinquent boys.

Robb avoids the temptation to offer a romanticized or idealized account of this work. He describes it in excerpts from his journal-passages that include his inner thoughts along with the actual exchanges he has with his students. He does offer his analysis and evaluation of the effort to assist these young outcasts-we learn what the experience has to offer them and view a range of responses from the individuals he encounters at the school.

Robb weaves his own developmental struggles (growing up in a single-parent home) and his academic interests (a writer and student of English Literature) into his work and he shows us how such inward-looking reflection informs him about the destructive impulses which weigh so heavily on the boys at Penikese. He concludes on a strong, positive note.

The book is a job well done, interesting, instructive and thoughtful. Thanks, Mr. Robb, for writing it.

I read this book in one delicious gulp! I, literally, could not put it down. I was fascinated by these boys, pushed to the fringes of society, accountable to everyone and embraced by no one. Robb does an excellent job of explaining the frustration of working with these "problem children." All the sacrifices, rewards and disappointments of being an unasked-for mentor are here in vivid color. The often times sad tales of these boys are skillfully woven through with narratives from the author's own life, his struggles to come to terms with his own childhood, and his own fumbling attempts at "parenting." Robb asks the difficult question: How can a young person follow the path to responsible, nurturing adulthood if they have no footsteps in which to follow? It's a hard question...and the answer harder still.

It's a provocative book that has jump-started several great conversation with friends. I learned from Dan Robb's book, CROSSING THE WATER, the cost of trying to connect with another human being. And the risks involved. I admired the simple honesty of his well-told story. Here is a man trying to make a difference in the world--one face-to-face interaction at a time. An admirable task in the age of e-mail. In teaching the boys of Penikese the basic rule in life that every action has a consequence he has reminded me of the importance of compassion. Robb writes intelligently, with a common sense almost spiritual bent I found compelling. I think he offers something to strive for, not just to troubled boys. Among other topics CROSSING THE WATER is a commentary of adolescent education, the art of teaching, street life, island life, parenthood, race realtions, and what it takes to be a human being these days. Robb's got a lot to say and I want to hear more from this new writer and true teacher.

A high school English teacher, I am eager to read books that will help me understand my own students better. Dan Robb's memoir joins RAISING CAIN and REVIVING OPHELIA on my shelf of essential reads for teachers. It is poignant and authentic. Robb's passion for his work and his compassion for his students inspire me. I have students like those he describes; mine just have yet to run afoul of the law. I recommend this book to all teachers and to all parents of boys.

Dan Robb's memoir criss-crosses the worlds of the Pennikese bad boys--his students; of his own memories of a sometimes tempest-tossed adolescence; of his adult role of teacher in uncharted territory; and of an island--sere and beautiful, immutably changing with the seasons and with the boys who come and go--a place isolated yet self-contained, severe and yet secure, once "home" to lepers, now a prison-home for boys perched on the brink of social leprosy.
Robb's beautifully descriptive book carries the reader back and forth among these intersecting worlds while limning sharp yet fleshy portraits of the boys, each of whose stories grabs and engrosses. This is a book--yes, for teachers who know, or are learning, that the best kind of pedagogy is through memory, storytelling and the imaging of new worlds; for those concerned about how to treat and heal our outcast and abandoned children; and for those who, along with their interest in a critical and wrenching problem, can also take pleasure in the work of a gifted teacher/writer/artist.

Years ago, before the School but long after the lepers, I used to sail to Penikese Island. I have roamed its rocky spine, lain in its chirring tall grasses, and combed its shores for things cast away. With rare clarity, Daniel Robb has brought me back there and introduced me to its latest inhabitants, the young men who, themselves cast away, are given a last chance at piecing together a viable future. Artfully tied in with the events that shaped the author's youth (There, but for the grace of God, goeth I), this book is a vivid account of what its like to live in a pressure-cooker of pent-up violence and betrayed trust. Gutsy and sensitive, it has earned a top place on my "great books" list.

I say surprising because 18 months on a cold, ocean-swept island working with troubled boys might be a snore to read about, but this book isn't. I wanted to find out what happened from day to day to the boys and the staff at the school. The island is really another character in the book, too. Definitely worth a read, even if the subject matter seems not your kind of thing. It's a good story.

If you work with kids, have kids, teach or work with people, this is a great book about the struggle to help others and work on yourself. Dan is brutally honest, especially about himself. He has profound insight into his own motives and the willingness to share tem with us. He is also a heck of a writer. He's a pretty good carpenter too.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Daniel Robb has a way of painting a picture with words. One can see and experience this book instead of just reading it. With so many troubled children in the world, it was great to read about how a small island and a few determined people are helping a few of them.

I personally liked this book, and was able to pick up a couple of ideas and techniques that would help in my daily life and dealing with people. It also gave me an insight into the worlds of these boys; the way the think, and backgrounds.