Review: Be Frank With Me

Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me forever to read this book. There were a myriad of reasons that I will not go into. I must say however, that none of them are a reflection of the readability or pleasure found in these pages.

I am a career educator. I have been a teacher and I have been a librarian. In those years, I have always loved the quirky ones. I have often been the ONLY one who did. I do not know if my affinity for these students is based on my own quirkiness, or on the mother bear aspects of my personality that never were fulfilled by having my own child. I have ached when students, and sometimes teachers, were less than kind. In reading this I loved and ached for Frank. I often had to put the book aside because I needed a break. In Frank I remembered every student I has loved and laughed with. I remembered every story of interaction with these students that I told to friends over and over again. Frank was endearing and I wanted to scoop him out of the book and hold him.

I think one thing I liked so much about this book is that it showed how everyone was touched by this little boy, and changed by him. His mother who loved him so fiercely, while keeping everyone else away. The caretaker that lost her heart to him, and realized she was not who she thought she was. The man who couldn't be responsible, yet still was so often there when Frank needed him, and HIM, who found joy again.

I only gave this book four stars, not because it was not wonderful, but because I hated that it ended. I hated that my heart might not ever be the same again. I hated that I just have to imagine that Frank will be okay as I have had to hope and imagine that students who leave me will be okay.

So if you meet a quirky kid, find the joy they can give you, don't dismiss them too quickly because they are weird. Let them light up your life and teach you some things about yourself. And do yourself a favor, Read this book, I'll be frank with you, it will touch your heart.


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