40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, Even For Non-Teachers, July 31, 2010
This review is from: Learn Me Good (Kindle Edition)
Learn Me Good is an often laugh-out-loud, 'probably-true' story of an engineer who loses his job and ends up teaching 3rd grade math in Dallas, TX.
The book is presented as a series of emails that Mr. Wooden...uh, Woodley...errr...Woodson (read the book, you'll understand that part) sends to a friend at his prior employer about the kids he's teaching and the crazy things they do and say. It's worth the small price of the book just to read the subjects & clever names with which he closes every email, I found myself snickering at several.
I've never raised or worked with children, so I don't read this genre (and wouldn't have, had I not read about it on the Kindle Boards), but I laughed loud enough to startle my dog a few times and found most of the stories to be at the very worst, amusing. Most people who have had or taught small children would get quite a kick out of it.
The author states up front that he's changed all the names and that 'most' of the incidents he recounts are true, lol. The book is a quick, easy read and the author's love of his new-found profession comes shining through in this light-hearted book. I finished it in two nights, which could have been one if I weren't so busy. The book is about 55,000 words. I'm not sure how many pages that translates into, but it's definitely novel-length.
A note about the Kindle edition: I didn't find any typos or grammatical errors (none that weren't intentional, lol), just a couple of odd line breaks. Formatting for Kindle isn't easy. I didn't fine them too distracting & they don't warrant a reformat, in my opinion. To those who worry about errors taking away from the enjoyment of an ebook, you can feel confident in buying this book, it won't disappoint.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What elementary teachers really do, November 18, 2006
John Pearson has managed to put his wry sense of humor into the book, Learn Me Good. For anyone who has spent their days working with elementary-school students, many of these situations will seem familiar -- but funnier because of John's writing style. For those whose only experience in elementary school classrooms was the period of time that they were in elementary school, John's emails describing his life as a teacher will give insight into what teachers really do all day long.
This book would make a great gift to any teacher.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant, September 4, 2009
John Pearson's "Learn Me Good" is an enjoyable little book that you can get for the Kindle fairly cheaply. As many others have explained, the book is a semi-autobiographical account of Pearson's first year of teaching as told by a series of emails to a former coworker at "Heat Pumps R' Us."
There are several laugh out loud funny moments in the book, usually describing kids being innocently silly or budding psychopaths. It is a pleasant and humorous read and for the most part is a G-rated read that most anyone could enjoy. The few PG-13 jokes (among the funniest) would probably go right over kids heads anyhow.
A few things keep the book from earning a few more stars. One ongoing joke about a kid incorrectly spelling a famed four letter word is met at one point by a reference to "Turret's Syndrome." Admittedly this is unintentionally hilarious, but goes to the greater point of the book needing a bit of editing. Also, at times I found Pearson tried a bit too hard to slam jokes and pop culture references into every sentence instead of letting it flow more naturally.
All in all, they are mostly minor complaints and Learn Me Good will give you some excellent laughs. For the price, it is hard to resist.
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