Angry, frustrated, and certain that nothing around him makes sense - the narrator of this uniquely conceived book forces you to look at the world through his eyes: as a dyslexic student in the earliest days of Special Education, as a self-destructive teen
The Drool Room
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Pam Moran
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Every now and then, I run into an unexpected gem of a book. The Drool Room is such a book. Ira Socol took me with him on a wild roller coaster ride through microfiction generated from his early life in school and into a career as an intense NYPD cop. His was a world of school failure powered by a combination of what he came to know as both dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His voice rises and falls, dips and dizzies with the sights, sounds, and smells of a ride gone wild. Then, Socol brings the coaster to a breathless halt and I sit there in silence; thankful to have experienced his voice.
In a system that lost sight of Ira the child, he never lost sight of the world and all its potential. Fortunately, he landed in an alternative school with a teacher who saw the worth in him as a young person. The book is a collection of micro-fiction grounded in the realities of public schooling in which children who learn differently just don't fit. Ira Socol eventually became a special education teacher and spends his time today teaching educators how to see the learning capacity within all children rather than focusing on their deficits. This book will resonate with anyone who failed in school, who saw others failing around them in school, or who struggles to teach or parent children like Ira. Read it. Pass it on.
In a system that lost sight of Ira the child, he never lost sight of the world and all its potential. Fortunately, he landed in an alternative school with a teacher who saw the worth in him as a young person. The book is a collection of micro-fiction grounded in the realities of public schooling in which children who learn differently just don't fit. Ira Socol eventually became a special education teacher and spends his time today teaching educators how to see the learning capacity within all children rather than focusing on their deficits. This book will resonate with anyone who failed in school, who saw others failing around them in school, or who struggles to teach or parent children like Ira. Read it. Pass it on.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. Gone
Format:Paperback
An angry, scared, whip smart young kid with profound dyslexia scuffles to avoid being put in the drool room with the kids who can't do anything for themselves. Through the years, the same anger and smarts sees him man and boy through school, love, and work. Always the outsider looking in, socol's writing gains power through a matter-of-fact, slightly flattened affect. Drool Room is direct, rich, and unforgettable.
By Hellie Bells
Format:Paperback
It's rare these days that a book grabs my attention to the extent that I simply can't put it down but this one did.
The Drool Room is written by my good friend Ira Socol (@irasocol) but that's not why I love it! It's an amazingly accurate story of life in school as a young boy with what we now know to be dyslexia and ADHD but in the earliest days of special ed Ira was left lost and unsure of his place in school. The narrator is honest in his story telling, he leaves none of his heartache out, every word is meaningfully written and chosen.
Ira as a young boy Of 6 and starting out in a New York school in the sixties sees the words on the page in a different way to the kids in his class and so his first year in school leaves the boy in a world where he isn't understood, lost alone and angry. The staff and teachers try to help but as I said above these were the real beginnings of learning support and special education. They just didn't know how to help him and the young boy experienced all sorts of resource rooms from the "book room" to councillors and finally the "drool room" itself.
I won't go into too much detail, this is a book you just have to read. I can't possibly do it justice here and to be honest I don't know if I want to. The Drool Room must be experienced and shared by teachers, parents and anyone who finds or who has been on the fringes of the education system.
Ira Socol's frustrations at the education system is obvious and as a teenager he finds himself even more lost and angry, he gets into trouble and while sport is a welcome escape he still struggles on. The alternative school he attends is somewhat of a life changer for him but he still finds school to be very alienating, something part of me believes schools can still be for anyone who has difficulties reading and writing like Ira.
Ira Socol may have struggled with reading the words on a page but he certainly has a way with them. Upon finishing The Drool Room I felt the urge to read it again, that rare feeling to read a book you've just finished took over and it was all I could think about. That feeling you get after a brilliant written book when for days, weeks, months after it's all you can think and talk about.
I know this book has changed me, the way I see life, school, my pupils and different learning needs. I know Ira has changed me in so many ways and I know this is a book that I will be keeping forever, unusual as it is these days but The Drool Room will be pride of place in my home for a very very long time.
The Drool Room is written by my good friend Ira Socol (@irasocol) but that's not why I love it! It's an amazingly accurate story of life in school as a young boy with what we now know to be dyslexia and ADHD but in the earliest days of special ed Ira was left lost and unsure of his place in school. The narrator is honest in his story telling, he leaves none of his heartache out, every word is meaningfully written and chosen.
Ira as a young boy Of 6 and starting out in a New York school in the sixties sees the words on the page in a different way to the kids in his class and so his first year in school leaves the boy in a world where he isn't understood, lost alone and angry. The staff and teachers try to help but as I said above these were the real beginnings of learning support and special education. They just didn't know how to help him and the young boy experienced all sorts of resource rooms from the "book room" to councillors and finally the "drool room" itself.
I won't go into too much detail, this is a book you just have to read. I can't possibly do it justice here and to be honest I don't know if I want to. The Drool Room must be experienced and shared by teachers, parents and anyone who finds or who has been on the fringes of the education system.
Ira Socol's frustrations at the education system is obvious and as a teenager he finds himself even more lost and angry, he gets into trouble and while sport is a welcome escape he still struggles on. The alternative school he attends is somewhat of a life changer for him but he still finds school to be very alienating, something part of me believes schools can still be for anyone who has difficulties reading and writing like Ira.
Ira Socol may have struggled with reading the words on a page but he certainly has a way with them. Upon finishing The Drool Room I felt the urge to read it again, that rare feeling to read a book you've just finished took over and it was all I could think about. That feeling you get after a brilliant written book when for days, weeks, months after it's all you can think and talk about.
I know this book has changed me, the way I see life, school, my pupils and different learning needs. I know Ira has changed me in so many ways and I know this is a book that I will be keeping forever, unusual as it is these days but The Drool Room will be pride of place in my home for a very very long time.
