Veteran teacher Julie Landsman leads the reader through a day of teaching and reflection about her work with high school students who are from a variety of cultures. She speaks honestly about issues of race, poverty, institutional responsibility, and white privilege by engaging the reader in the experiences of a day in the classroom with some of her remarkable students. Throughout the day, we meet bigotry head-on, struggle with questions of racial identity, and find cultural conflict in the corridors of the school building. Along the way, we come face to face with Tyrone, a young African-American student grappling with the realities of discrimination in suburbia. We encounter Sheila, a teenage mother struggling to raise her baby in poverty, and we get to know Sarah, a white girl living on the streets of Minneapolis. Through the author's eyes, we begin to understand the complexities of teaching in today's society and we learn within the pages of this book, if only just for a moment, what it feels like to be the other.

"This readable book conveys its message simply and powerfully. A superb addition to public and academic libraries." - Library Journal

"Landsman's intellectual and personal rapport with her students is impressive...this balanced, quietly impassioned account affords insight into race relations in the classroom and will appeal to parents and educators who are struggling with these issues." - Publishers Weekly

"...Landsman brings keen observation and empathy to her recollections of working as a writer and teacher with racially diverse students at a public high school in Minneapolis....She lifts some of those blinders in this insightful presentation on the intersection of race, poverty, and culture in an increasingly diverse nation." - Booklist

"...Landsman pushes for an ideal educational diversity while never departing from the concreteness of her own classroom, her students, and their shared daily challenges." - Doubletake

"...Landsman draws readers in...[she] writes frankly about the intersections of race, culture, class, gender, education, and white privilege...Landsman's reflections have import for all who teach and work with teens." - VOYA

"Touching, graceful, and painfully honest...there's a humanity and frankness to Landsman's words." - Chicago Tribune