Lighting Their Fires

August 24, 2009
In his follow-up to Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, elementary school teacher Esquith focuses on financially disadvantaged but scholastically ambitious fifth-graders from Hobart Elementary School, located in the middle of a critically poor Los Angeles neighborhood. Directed primarily at parents, educators and administrators, this volume offers anecdotes and suggestions for inspiring and encouraging each child to live up to his or her tremendous promise. Framed by the story of a Dodgers baseball game to which he brings a small group of students, Esquith notes the values of his students in contrast to many of the adult ticket-holders: punctuality, focus, confidence, selflessness, humility, and others. He then probes the meaning of each value, like the way being on time reflects a belief in control over one's destiny, as well as a sense of responsibility. Celebrating his young students' everyday accomplishments, Esquith outlines the struggles and stakes that face them all, while making teaching (and learning) look easy.

August 1, 2009
Award-winning Los Angeles teacher Esquith uses the occasion of a night Dodger baseball game with six students to highlight the myriad ways of teaching children and preparing them for education. Inning by inning, he recalls dialogue with students at the game and remembrances of past occasions, movies, books, and plays that helped to teach lessons from the basics of punctuality to the joys of reading. Esquith offers specific suggestions for parents and teachers to take advantage of everyday situations to teach children important lessons andconnect themto school activities. Henames the books, plays, and board games to promote, coupled with examples fromactual productions, movies, and conversations. Esquith includes recollections of current and former students from disadvantaged backgrounds who werent expected to achieve much but developed into scholars and lovers of learning.He believes the same opportunity is available to all children ifteachers and parents would take the lead. An inspiring, helpful resourcefrom the author of Teach like Your Hairs on Fire (2007).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)