The Faculty Lounge

YA author Mathieu (Bad Girls) makes her adult debut with a satisfying ode to the faculty and staff of a Houston public high school. After the death of Mr. Lehrer, a beloved math teacher who continued on as a substitute after his retirement, Baldwin High officials plan to carry out his final wish and spread his ashes in the school’s courtyard. Disaster occurs at the ceremony, as Lehrer’s ashes blow into the face of the school’s contentious PTO president. Mathieu then alternates perspectives between school employees as tensions are heightened by the PTO president. Major plot points revolve around a nurse who defies school policy by distributing pregnancy tests and an English teacher accused of advocating racism against white people by assigning The Autobiography of Malcolm X. There’s also a charming story line involving a make-out session between two teachers locked in a room together during a gun scare. Taken together, the characters’ stories cohere into a moving portrait of the teachers’ and staff members’ humanity and their dedication to the students. This is a winner. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (July)