Learnt reviews

 

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With engrossing scenes, smart prose, and addictive characters, Baldwin’s debut novel about life in a classroom more than makes the grade. Learnt, the first of his “classroom dramas,” is not another teacher memoir about overcoming hard experiences in a tough school. Actually, it isn’t a memoir at all; it’s fiction—gripping, illuminating, powerful fiction. Set in Duval County, he tells the story of first-year English teacher Tony Avery, abused student Kenny Houston, and the infamous Lincoln High, a school that’s every teacher’s last choice of employment.

 

Character development is superb. Baldwin has a style that grows on you, and he submerges readers into two very different lives, entrancing us with the plights of some of the most engaging, most memorable characters ever to enter a classroom. Readers follow along with Tony and Kenny’s personal struggles, eventually witnessing how their individual hardships influence life at Lincoln High. With a generous dose of plot twists and surprises, and portraying a fresh, bold dialect, Learnt packs the wallop of a talented, innovative writer who has only begun to write.—Editorial review from the publisher

 

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Baldwin weaves the myriad problems of an inner city school into a very engaging story.  His characters are absolutely believable and well-written. The general public can gain a badly needed insight into the complexities of public education, and anyone considering a career in the business of teaching will appreciate the truths Baldwin makes brutally evident. —Dr. Robert Fulton, 28-year veteran educator

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The characters of Tony Avery and Kenny Houston come into your life and stay forever. Learnt truly depicts what a teacher's life is like, and I appreciated the accurate portrayal of a teenager's struggle with self-identity and life purpose. You will be drawn into this story and find yourself unable to put it down. Mr. Baldwin is a gifted writer, creating characters with real life issues with accuracy and finesse. —Joanne Robideau, H.S. English Dept. Head, B.C. Canada

 

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Great character development! And the dialogue during the classroom scenes were brilliant and well developed, making the challenges of reading the dialect well worth it. Learnt is a thought-provoking read for people in the teaching profession, and I also see this book as one that could be used in college of Education courses. This novel challenges the reader to think and to confront prejudices. —Grace Lias, HR Senior Executive Director, Orange County Public Schools

 

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Lincoln High School is where behaviorally challenged students are sent. They don't earn a diploma for completing their courses, so there is really no motivation for them to learn. Tony Avery, an English teacher who is black, accepts a job there in order to get some experience before seeking a position at a better school. He faces the challenges of trying to motivate and educate the unruly students, while also trying to earn their respect. Avery ends up learning many things from his students, especially Kenny, a white student who was sent to Lincoln for fighting at his other school.

Author Baldwin has an excellent way of making the characters come to life. Mr. Avery was not depicted as the idealistic new teacher who thought he was going to fix everything that was wrong with the school system. His doubts and frustrations were clearly demonstrated. However, his efforts to fight for all of his students to be eligible to try to return to a "regular" school showed that he believed in them and their futures.

Kenny's struggles were also portrayed well, told in first person, making it very moving. His difficulties with his alcoholic mother and his weight issues were sources of constant embarrassment.

An important part of Learnt deals with racial issues. Baldwin does a fine job of showing that different races can get along as well as learn from each other. Tony has a white fiancée-and they seem so perfect for each other. When Kenny finally makes a friend for the first time in his life, it is with a black male, even though Kenny hates black people because of an incident when he was younger.

At first it was a little difficult to decipher some of the African-American dialect that was written, but I caught on fairly quickly. Using the dialect made the characters and the situations portrayed seem more real. It also helped demonstrate the point that just because someone does not speak what is considered standard English, his or her thoughts and opinions are not less valuable.

This book will touch the reader's heart from the beginning to the unexpected incident at the end. Highly recommended for teenagers and adults-for the lessons to be learned. —Leslie Granier, Armchair Interviews

 

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The student is a teacher’s nightmare and the teacher, a Black man, has his problems, too. How they work to resolve their problems makes for interesting reading and tells us a lot about just how bad too many of our schools are these days.—Alan Caruba, Bookviews

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Mr. Baldwin presents us with a picture of the world the way it could be better . . . if we are authentically interested in and considerate of one another. His vision is powerful, his examples are challenging, his plot is one you haven't read before, and you won't soon forget what he has to say.

I was attracted to this book because I was interested in learning about the lessons it contains about how to teach youngsters who aren't doing so well in school. In seeking out that material, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book contains a lot more than just lessons for teaching: It's a handbook for living the right kind of life.

If you know an aspiring teacher, a copy of Learnt is a perfect gift.

I discovered two drawbacks to the book that I would like to alert you to:

1. The beginning takes a long time to establish the characters. The first 150 pages could have been cut by about 85 pages, and the book would have worked better for me.

2. A lot of dialog is written to be partially representative of African-American language in Florida. The writing is done in a way that simulates for readers of standard English the difficulties that some African-Americans have with understanding standard American English. For example, "own" stands for "on." To decode that, you have to figure out that "own" means "on," but then it's hard to avoid reading "own" and thinking of standard English meaning for "own" when you see it. This book is not a quick read.

I think this approach would have worked better in a recorded reading of the book than as written dialog. I found it refreshing to get that perspective of how language divides us (as I did when a literacy teacher simulated for me what a dyslexic person sees), but so much material done this way wore me down and reduced my ability to enjoy the book. I grew up in southern California, and the African-American language I learned there was different . . . so reading this book was like learning a foreign language in places.

I thought the humor in the book was outstanding. Most people who are working on such a serious subject are humorless.

Teachers and parents who advocate that children read great books will have their eyes opened especially by the descriptions of what conclusions one of the characters draws from his unsupervised reading.

I predict a great future for Mr. Baldwin as a writer, especially if he edits his future books to make them a little more accessible.—Donald Mitchell, author, Top 10 Amazon Reviewer

 

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There is a chilling “something” about a book when you have no clue to what it is about. You open the book and start reading and thoughts poor into your head. In Learnt thoughts poured into my head quickly the murdering white racists, Nazis, the Black Panthers and street gangs, all rolled into one book without ever saying a word about them. Yet when you read Learnt, those things will cross your mind.

 

Learnt is also hilarious, on several levels. Maybe at times if you are not used to black “speak” it may be hard to follow but it is well worth muddling through, because my readers, there are not many books out there like this one.

 

The reader will get an insiders view into prejudice and racism – yes they are two different things. You will see the distrust and distaste in the mouths of students that have been taught to hate, and yet you will see the opposite from those that are not.

 

Since I was about twelve years-old I started telling people if they only listened to love songs – there would be no hate. Then it of course that traverses over to books as well, if you stop reading books of hate and murder, then of course you only know love. Learnt is one of those rare books that can irritate you, make you think and make you realize there is a little hope in all of us. —Bookwired Review

 

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