After joining Teach for America, Michelle Kuo found herself in rural Arkansas, one of the poorest counties in America. With the legacy of Jim Crow and slavery still prominent, Michelle was shocked that most of her students knew little about slavery and civil rights. One of her students, Patrick, stuck out to her and she found herself mentoring and pushing him to succeed. Once Michelle's time with Teach for America was up, she moved onto law school, leaving the students behind. During her time at law school, she found out that Patrick had been arrested for murder. Determined to save Patrick, Michelle puts her career as a lawyer on hold and moves back to Arizona. Visiting Patrick in jail, she assigns him homework and comes back day after day, trying to reawaken his mind.

I found Michelle extremely relatable. Although she went to Harvard and came from privilege, her desire to make a difference is what struck me. She freely admitted her faults and failures, and struggled with her decisions. Although I questioned some of her choices, I was rooting for her to succeed, for her to make a difference. Overall, highly recommended.

Did not finish. Couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried.

Excellent, well told story of great character in a despicable situation. Heart breaking and heart warming at once.

I thought the description of the book was much more interesting and involving than the story itself. In the end, I felt Patrick was the true hero and his convictions stood out in direct opposition to the on-again, off-again nature of the main character. I was ready to close the book and give up about half way through, but remembered how I was drawn to the description and forced myself to finish. In the end found myself feeling duped and disappointed by the story's lack of delivery on the promise and excitement of the description.

The perfect gift for the educator in your life! It is a wonderful homage to learning and teaching.

A heart warming story. Even though they came from separate worlds reading brought them together. A book that proves that there are people out there that believe in you and will go to great lengths.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Michelle Kuo is the daughter of Asian immigrants and has recently graduated from Harvard. She takes a job in Arkansas teaching at a rural school. The students are barely literate at best. She connects with one student, Patrick. She teaches him to read and Patrick flourishes.

After two years of teaching Michelle goes back to law school. She finds out several years later that Patrick has been charged with murder. She goes back to Arkansas. She discovered that Patrick has regressed and decides she is going to stay there and teach/mentor him again.

Patrick finds his writing voice and learns more about himself and discovers some of the great authors.

This true story left me feeling like there is hope for those students that most people write off. It just takes someone to care.

What I liked: This book is a beautifully written memoir about the relationship between and teacher and her student. This book powerfully shows the good that one person can do for other people. Michelle Kuo writes well, honestly showing her own flaws and foibles, while helping us better understand the plight of poverty stricken African Americans in the south. Her description of Patrick and her relationship with him is moving and poignant.

What I didn't like: I wanted to learn more about Patrick's life and his family's struggles.

This was such a lovely story. The premise did not seem too enthralling, honestly. I definitely expected this to be different, not exactly sure what but different than it was. Kuo tells a relatively simple story one that has been presented in books, film and television many times over. Usually, it is an oversimplified, sentimental and naive look at the white liberal who teaches the angry, inner city black kids that rap is the same thing as poetry and everyone lives happily ever after thanks to the benevolence of the white savior. Instead, Kuo a Taiwanese American woman tells of her often disappointing and exhausting experience of teaching to a group of teenagers in the Arkansas Delta. While her story is familiar, Kuo doesn't try to paint herself as a martyr or savior and has enough self awareness to recognize herself in that tired Hollywood cliche. The student that changes her life, Patrick, is presented as a complicated individual whose story and life is not perfect. By showing the faults of both the main subjects,' Kuo has written an honest and nuanced look at how geography,class and race work with and against each other to continue to create inequality in America today.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship stands as the best book I have read this year. Michelle Kuo, an Asian-American Harvard graduate, opts to join Teach for America and spend two years in rural Arkansas. Kuo's parents are mystified and question her motivations and long-term goals. Their questions, however, serve as a counterpoint Kuo's questions and doubts about her purpose and effectiveness. Is she making a difference? Does she have a right to impact anything when she always has the option to leave? Are her intentions to bring literature and wonder to a forgotten population intrinsically selfish?

Kuo effectively describes her initial teaching experiences as disastrous. She had great ideas of what she needed to do but these ideas bore little relation to what her students - intellectually, physically, socially and emotionally bereft - actually needed. With no guidance and lots of missteps, Kuo's manages to bring some light into the drab world of her students.

Kuo's description of the alternative school in Helena, Arkansas reveals an educational system that did not have any commonality to any experience I had with nearly 40 years as a public school educator. Certified teachers? Of course not. Books? Of course not. Caring child-centered discipline system? Only if you consider a paddle to be effective. Kuo's lack of educational theory allows her to break the rules of many public school systems. These students, however, have been abandoned by the system. Neither the system nor Kuo's students had dreams or hopes or expectations. Their world was limited and colorless. Few graduate from high school and higher education is not a consideration. They had committed the sin of being born poor and black.

One student, Patrick Browning, is fifteen when Kuo first introduces him. He and his classmates are barely literate. Through trial and error, Kuo brings young adult literature into their world. Patrick becomes a favorite and her effectiveness and success are based on Patrick's growth. After two years in the Delta she leaves for law school, uncertain as to the lasting impact of her two years of service.

While in law school and beyond, Kuo continues her quest to make a difference. She intends to take a job in the public sector when she learns that Patrick, now nineteen, is in jail awaiting trial for murder. There is no doubt that he caused the death of an unarmed man. Kuo returns to the delta, eventually postponing her planned move to California and employment. For the next few months, Kuo visits Patrick in jail as he awaits trial. Here the two resume Patrick's education with literature and writing.

Over the next few months, Patrick's intelligence and personality shine while Kuo, along with her readers, are exposed to the nightmarish legal system. Prior to trial, Patrick has no access to a lawyer since the public defender system is so limited in Arkansas. Also, the trial calendar is so time-constrained that defendants spend months and months in jail without appearing before a judge. Patrick meets his attorney on the same day that he accepts a plea deal for manslaughter. There has been no investigation, no victim impact statements, no understanding of the charges, and no real justice. Reading this section reminded me of the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird minus the impassioned Gregory Peck.

Reading Kuo's memoir is almost painful; I had to keep reminding myself that the events happened in the 21st century. As a country, we still leave too many of our citizens to the whims of chance. Reading this book brought easy comparisons to The Other Wes Moore. Both open up an America that many of us don't know or even believe exists.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC for review.

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship, by Michelle Kuo, is a memoir of the author’s time spent teaching students in an alternative school in the Mississippi Delta. One student in particular, Patrick, quickly earns his way into Ms. Kuo’s heart. The author details Patrick’s growth and difficulties as she records her observations of the Delta region in which they live. Even when Ms. Kuo returns to school for a law degree, her bond with - and her uneasiness for - Patrick endures. She eventually learns that he is in prison, having been arrested for murder.

The reader will cheer for Patrick as he grows and learns, and will grieve for him as life unravels. As a former classroom teacher, I know the experience of falling so much “in love” with your students it’s as if they are your children. Even now, as a public school media specialist, I hear students’ stories and anguish for them and what they experience in life.

A review I read noted, “I didn’t know anything about the South until now.” It is troubling that the author, an Ivy-League Northerner, spent a few years in small-town Mississippi, and portrays her experience as typical of the South. I wish she had visited other areas of the South, perhaps some of the larger cities, and stayed around to learn more about how we live together. We aren’t perfect, but we, too, are learning and growing.