So What! Stories or Whatever!

by G J Griffiths

Overview

Revised Edition: JUST SOME OF THE COMMENTS FOUND IN THE 5 STAR REVIEWS OF THIS COLLECTION OF SCHOOL STORIES FOR ALL AGES: ... "HILARIOUSLY FUNNY ONE MOMENT AND THOUGHT PROVOKING THE NEXT!" - "POIGNANT AND GRAPHIC TALES - WITH AN UNEXPECTED TWIST." - "NICE TO KNOW YOUR PUPILS GOT YOUR BACK WHEN YOU NEED IT!" These stories from the classroom will have you laughing or weeping - sometimes both in the same minute! Whether student, teacher or parent you will wonder: How do they survive? Waterloo Road or Grange Hill meets Gervase Phinn - well maybe? If you love this book or hate it you will have to admit that the stories about its characters will stay in your memory for a long time. With his many years teaching experience behind him, G J Griffiths has brought to the reader some of the stories about the children he taught, in this amusing and often inspirational book. Without exception everyone will recognise the characters and their captivating tales. All through the book we are made aware of the joys and disappointments experienced by the pupils and their teachers: Mr Jeffrey and his colleagues. With the ever-present controversy about changes in the education system this is a timely illustration of what amusement and sorrow is often to be found in the classrooms of the contemporary High School.Prepare to meet Amelia the Alien, Kyle Crabbe the school's own Gollum, and Grant Edwards their star of West Side Story!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484987100
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	07/04/2013
Series:	Telling Tales from Birch Green High School , #1
Pages:	398
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

G J Griffiths is a UK baby-boomer who worked for quite a while in the Photographic industry. Then he became a Science teacher for about twenty years. He likes reading (lots!) walking in the countryside and birdwatching - and being a Grandad! Having retired he thought he would like to write a novel. When GJ started writing Fallen Hero he was already well into the collection of stories later to become his second book: So What! Stories or Whatever! But the general direction of the plot and many of the characters were not properly formed at that time. Then along came the idea for Fallen Hero and that took over for the next 18 months or so! Originally after he had retired from teaching GJ Griffiths just wanted to write - write about many of the kids he had taught and tell his readers about some of their hilarious tales. But after a while he realised that so many of the stories would be tinged with sadness or tragedy - poignant moments, and that it was not going to be just another "book of funny stories". If he was going to include some of the difficulties that the kids' teachers also faced, many times a day sometimes, then he had to also write about why they wanted to come into education, and more importantly, why they were determined to stay in it! So Robert Jeffrey was "born" and his story is gradually unfolded and woven between the collection of students' stories. There was a danger that the book would become a continuous whinge from yet another cynical, grumbling teacher. Enter Kyle Crabbe, the bully, and some of the tales begin to have a sinister theme to them! With that stage set it meant that G J could lead the reader up a path that would allow a twist to it! Some of the books that Robert Jeffrey had read and that had inspired him to want to teach coincided, strangely enough, with some of the list that G J Griffiths had also valued. It was a list that included: R Delderfield's "To Serve Them All My Days", Thomas Hughes' "Tom Brown's Schooldays", D H Lawrence's "The Rainbow", E R Braithwaite's "To Sir with Love", "Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!", plus, of course, a couple from The Master - Charles Dickens, such as "Hard Times" and "Nicholas Nickleby". G J Griffiths still has many more So What! Stories to tell. Until he had almost finished his second book he hadn't realised that there was going to be another book-full to come out of his head and onto the written page. The second book in the series So What's Next! is now available, the third's on its way!