![]() However, the novel is strong on character development. The epistolary form offers a challenging format for both character development and story presentation. Barrett also commiserates with her co-workers, and we see some of her frustration playing out through the post-it note equivalent of water-cooler conversations. This humor is largely conveyed through memos – some school-wide and some specifically to the protagonist, Sylvia Barrett. Bureaucratic wrangling and lack of resources cause most of the protagonist’s frustrations. ![]() There’s a second kind of humor in the form of bureaucratic absurdism. ![]() laugh so you don’t cry style humor.) The humor from kids is largely conveyed by students’ comments in the teacher’s comment box as well as via homework assignments. Some of the humor is of a “kids say the darndest things” nature – though these are high school students, so the humor isn’t so much born of naiveté as it is a combination of teenage snarkiness and a maddening ignorance of concepts that students should have grasped by that age (i.e. It’s an epistolary novel – meaning it’s conveyed through a series of documents. ![]() This is a humorous novel about a rookie teacher’s first year in a New York City public school with all the frustrations and victories that experience entails. ![]()
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