Choosing Hope

July 13, 2015
When a gunman stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., killing 26 people—including 20 children—in 2012, teacher Roig-Debellis swiftly herded her 15 first-graders into a cramped bathroom, where they sat in quiet terror for 45 minutes until rescue arrived. In this memoir, Roig-Debellis, writing with Fisher, recounts that tragic day. The author shares details of her past as an adopted child raised in a loving middle-class family in a Connecticut town. Early on, she knew her career goal; inspired by her fifth-grade teacher, she vowed to become a “dedicated educator, a counselor, a mentor, and a life guide.” Little did she know how literally that wish would manifest (readers are forewarned that they may wish to skip a portion of the “My Darkest Hour” section, though the retelling is handled with great care). Following the tragedy, Roig-Debellis advocates for her students, insisting upon an extended delay in return to school. Eventually classes resume in a different location, but the author’s pleas for extra safety measures for her traumatized students are ultimately denied. Not to be deterred from her mission to help others, Roig-Debellis initiates Classes 4 Classes, an online nonprofit that enables kids to help other kids. The memoir not only dramatically conveys how swiftly an “ordinary” life can change, but also probes the depth of the struggle to rise from despair to hope. Agent: Hannah Gordon, Foundry Literary + Media.

July 15, 2015
A former first-grade teacher's heartfelt account of how she survived both the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and the events that followed it. Roig-DeBellis always knew she wanted to work with children and "help them become the best people they could possibly be." So when she was hired to teach first grade at Sandy Hook starting in the fall of 2007, she was thrilled. Each day was a joy: "we just didn't have bad days at Sandy Hook. It was always sunny inside." All that changed on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman-whose name she has since refused to speak-came onto campus and killed 20 children and 6 adults. The minute Roig-DeBellis heard gunshots, she hid 15 students and herself in a tiny class bathroom and prayed. After her rescue she discovered that the gunman had miraculously skipped her classroom-which was the first in the hallway where the gunman began his spree-and gone into the classrooms next to hers, "shooting everyone he saw." Despite support from family and friends, the author's nightmare did not end with her rescue. School administrators repeatedly ignored her efforts to create enhanced classroom safety measures for her traumatized students, and they eventually asked her to take a leave from teaching. Undeterred, Roig-DeBellis took the time off to turn a classroom project that used donated items and funds received after the massacre to help needy students at other schools into a nonprofit organization called Classes 4 Classes. Though it may strike some readers as Pollyannaish, the author's sunny optimism about the teaching profession is sincere. Her account of the shooting, her struggle to keep despair at bay in both herself and her students, and her ultimate triumph as a survivor seeking to make a difference help balance the book and redeem it from excessive sentimentality. A flawed but still courageous and inspiring book from a genuine hero.

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June 1, 2015

On December 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza opened fired at Sandy Hook Elementary School, teacher Roig-DeBellis packed 15 six- and seven-year-old students into a single-occupancy bathroom in her first-grade classroom and saved their lives. She has since become a high-profile inspirational speaker. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

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