The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America

Journalist Tesoriero embedded in one exceptional Connecticut classroom during the 2016–2017 school year for this inspiring account of how a high school science teacher mentors and motivates his prize-winning pupils. Andy Bramante, a corporate scientist turned public school teacher, teaches Greenwich High School’s science research class, where his students have been cleaning up awards on the science fair circuit for years. In writing about the curriculum and students’ projects, Tesoriero excels at making the science accessible, whether discussing experiments with PDE4 inhibitors or the importance of carbon capture. Sometimes, however, she strains to do the same with the students’ lives, such as with descriptions like “the primero popular girl-boy posse” or poking fun at a student’s use of a made-up word. But Tesoriero keeps Bramante at the emotional center of it all, following him as he opens the lab during winter break, frets over a student who loses focus, and balances celebrating the winners and commiserating with the losers at science fairs. The students’ kindnesses, worries, feuds, and projects are likewise sketched so lovingly that readers cannot help rooting for them. With its winning mix of human-interest and scientific innovation, this book will appeal to general readers and fans of pop science alike. [em](Sept.) [/em]