Customer Reviews

Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember (Harvest Original)

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Idly thumbing through the stacks at my local indy the other day, I stumbled across this little gem. Initially the New Orleans and Katrina related subject matter drew me in. As much as has been said, there is still so much more that hasn't. An almost endless litany of stories both sorrowful and uplifting spill continuously from the flood waters all over this country.

Oddly, I wasn't sure if the theme of education, and the power it bestows to rise above, would indeed hold my attention. It's a reality, sure, but is it engaging?

Uh huh.

This story is *both* sorrowful *and* uplifting. It's spare. It's real. It tells an intimate, nuanced, and unfamiliar story of a very familiar tragedy. Maybe you didn't live in the Ninth Ward or St. Bernard Parish, but what if it was still your city? Maybe you got out, your house damaged, but not destroyed. Maybe there was somewhere to go. Someone with whom to stay.

Living in New Orleans, that could've been my situation, or that of those I care for. Not utter ruin. Not the heartrending images you saw on television every night, but devastation nonetheless. Lost jobs, lost lives, lost children. How do you help them find center, when you've lost your own? How do you explain the pulse of suffering on TV, the radio, papers when it all represents the people and places you loved?

This isn't just a story about a school. It's a story about selfless care, survival, and a community's ability to rise above with aide of, and nurture for the resiliency of youth.

I am from New Orleans and a friend handed me this book. "Thought you might like it." I read it all night long in one sitting. It's a sad, scary, exhilarating, thoughtful, dramatic, uplifting book. I am sure I can come up with more adjectives if pressed. The story is a first-person account of evacuating Hurricane Katrina; realizing home is gone and the magnificent educator who kept a community united. Any parent, teacher and/or New Orleanian should read this splendid tale.

Great teachers can contribute so much to society and yet literature too rarely captures and celebrates this form of greatness. Katrina was a terrible storm with terrible consequences, which will be with us for decades, and yet here emerges a story that gives hope and inspiration. Without this tragedy and this book about one facet of the complicated story, we would not have seen into the world of these children and thier wonderful teacher, Paul Reynaud. We would not have had this privilege to see this example of greatness in education--without Paul, these children would not have had as vivid, life-improving, memories and lessons. "Celebrate that which you want to see more of" is a favorite adage which the author does an excellent job of fulfilling. Michael Tisserand shows, from the inside, dozens of enjoyable vignettes with subtle and not so subtle consequences. As so many schools are failing our children, here is an example of success which i believe you will enjoy.

Most of us, American or otherwise, can never forget the shock and growing horror at the scenes of total devastation when the levees burst in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina had initially seemed to have left the city relatively unscathed. The atmosphere of chaos, lawlessness and anarchy that so quickly enveloped the ruined city was widely reported on. But most of us have no idea what it was like on an individual level, for those thousands of ordinary families and households whose lives were changed forever by this event.

Sugarcane Academy goes some way towards addressing this lack. In a simple, undramatic manner, Michael Tisserand tells the story of how he, his family, their circle of friends and their families, coped during and particularly after the storm.

The people involved in this account are a group of average middle-class families who were not even living in the worst-hit parts of New Orleans. However, the physical and psychological effects of the hurricane and its aftermath on them and on their children are very poignantly detailed in this book. The families, along with the unorthodox and talented teacher Paul Reynaud, establish a temporary `school in exile' for their children that helps to carry them all through the trauma of the first few months after Katrina. The school, nicknamed `Sugarcane Academy' because of the sugarcane fields near its first location in New Iberia, becomes a cathartic experience for all concerned, and through its activities and field trips, the children are enabled to work through the loss and upset that has turned their lives upside down.

This book tells a compelling story, and in its focus on children, gives an unusual insight into the effect of tragedies like Katrina on children, and their means of dealing with such events. In style, the story can ramble here and there, and can also be rather confusing due to the sheer number of names and characters that are mentioned. However, it is a fascinating tale, and one that would be of particular interest to social workers and educators.

Armchair Interview says: An interesting and valuable read.

My family just moved to the NOLA area a few months ago, and I'm a teacher, so that's what initially drew me to what I thought was just another "teacher" book. Wrong. This book is an interesting read for anyone, uplifting and disturbing at the same time. I highly recommend it.

I though this was a good book. Being from New Iberia I found myself connecting with the book in some ways remembering from experience the ways Hurricanes Katrina and Rita impacted New Iberia. I did seem to get lost in the book at the end, feeling that the arthur rambled on about some things. Otherwise this was a really good book and I would recommend it to New Iberians, or anyone who was impacted by the 2 hurricanes.

Great book! Everyone should read it to see how Hurricane Katrina affected the children whose homes and schools were damaged or destroyed.

This book works on two levels - it's a touching memoir of a father's own journey, paired with the detailed account a journalist can provide of what happened to his city.