A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from her Student

by Elizabeth Stone

Review:

This is the first book that I have read for pleasure in quite some time. A complete page turner, especially at the beach or in the oasis we call our backyard. There is not a whole lot of depth here, just a feel good story, centering around the lives of a teacher and a student. Story line: Teacher connects with a student who wills her his journals and she writes a book about the whole experience of reading about the boy she once knew, while realizing he was a man she didn't know. Not sad, not exciting, just nice. I guess you could say she made some impression on him if he trusted her after so many years with his private thoughts and secrets. The boy/man had a lot of skeletons in his closet and he exposed them in his journals. She helped to tell his story in a clean, concise way, while revealing her inner most secrets about her journey as a young woman on the verge of becoming an adult. Overall, I think this would have played out better as a movie.

About the author:

Elizabeth Stone, now an English professor at Fordham University, has appeared on CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight" and on radio programs throughout the country, including a WBAI FM program on "Coming Out in the Classroom." She has been invited to do workshops with teachers on student secrets, to speak with members of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), to visit book groups which have read her book, and to lecture in colleges on "AIDS Diaries." High School students have become acquainted with Elizabeth's work through "Future Teacher of America" clubs and in literature curricula. Her book has been recommended to professionals in education as well as to nurses receiving training in "Death and Dying" courses.