Among the Fourth Graders

Set in a San Francisco elementary school, it depicts a year-in-the-life of a fourth-grade class, told by a volunteer classroom assistant ("Terry") who has entered the social world of nine-year-olds. It is a humorous and poignant book, driven by dialogue, which focuses on the lives and families of the children, with a large ensemble cast. The kids are faced with life's many tests each day, most of which they manage with the ingenuity of necessity. And yet they and their school are ultimately...