Thank you to the publisher and the NetGalley for the advanced electronic copy of this book. This compilation is genius! I am an ENL educator and can definitely relate to the perfect descriptions of our school lives distilled into six-word gems. Teaching over zoom is hard enough, but teaching students who speak and understand languages other that English over zoom/google classroom is even more challenging. I’ve used six-word memoirs with my ELLs across grade levels even before COVID, and am looking forward to continue using them with new students.

We do six-word memoirs in our English 10 classroom. I was really excited to see how students perceived their time quarantined and was not disappointed. The students really put themselves out there. I think this would be a great addition to the classroom for students to read. Will be looking into more of these books to read. Thanks to Six-Word Memoirs and NetGalley for the opporunity to read and review this book.

With 3 kids at home finishing out the school year of 19/20 and then teaching during 20/21, I remember the struggles, feelings of overwhelm, and disbelief that this is what school had become. But, I also remember resilience, perseverance, and a community of support like I had never felt before.

This is the tenth book in the Six-Word Memoir series and focuses on the parent, student, and teacher perspective told with just 6 words. The six-word story was made popular by Hemingway who was once challenged to write a novel with just six words. He wrote, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Since then, many classrooms have challenged students to write their own six-word stories. In fact, I was just given this assignment in a writing class I took this summer. I had to write both a scary six-word story and a funny one.

Rain, howling wind. House is gone.
No tip. Barista adds vinegar instead.

It was a fun assignment and one that I encourage other teachers to try in their classrooms. In this book, students, teachers, and parents both in the Midwest and on the East and West Coasts were given the challenge to share about the pandemic school year in a six-word memoir. Their perceptions and feelings resonated with me both as a parent and a teacher. Some of them I’m sharing below:

“Numbers rose, but sun did, too. ~ Larry Smith
“Synchronous. Asynchronous. Hybrid. Virtual. Zoom hell. ~Shelly Moran
“Protected kids mental health, neglected mine.” ~ Kelly Croasmun
“Pandemic epiphany: teachers are sorely underpaid.” ~ Mishell DeFelice
“Grace is more important than grades.” ~ Lisa Casillas

There were so many stories that had me laughing and crying. A music teacher who longed to share music with kids and was used to passing instruments and letting kids try making music was suddenly teaching kids over zoom which isn’t ideal for collective singing and playing music. Even once they had returned to in-person they were still forbidden to sing or even pass instruments. Instead, she turned to history and teaching kids about music greats, listening to their music, and allowing kids to study their favorite musicians. I laughed out loud with the teacher who works in a behavior classroom and found that masks not only kept her from getting COVID but also kept her from smelling her students’ farts.

From March 2020 to the present day, schools administrators, teachers, parents, and students have traveled through new experiences no one ever expected. Did some good things come out of this experience? Sure. We have learned new ways and maybe even better ways to teach and communicate with students through different sources of technology. Did we also suffer greatly? Yes. I still see ramifications of the pandemic in both elementary and high school classrooms that students may never overcome. Did we all make mistakes? Of course. But, we also learned so much from each other, and in reading this book, I learned that kids are smarter than we realize, more perceptive, and yet are quite adaptable. They learn from us and we learn from them.

If you have a teacher in your life, I recommend sharing this book with them. Let them know you appreciated all their efforts during the pandemic and maybe they will be encouraged to share their experiences and feelings in a six-word memoir. If you know of a classroom that might like to try writing their own six-word memoirs, but sure to check out the website, https://sixinschools.com/ to get their own classroom kit.

Six-Word Memoirs® is a simple way to engage and inspire anyone and everyone to get to the essence of who they are and what matters most.

This book is a great snapshot of what young families and educators went through during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six-word stories were interspersed with short articles about what life was like in 2020. Some stories were funny, many profound, and many were sad. It showed the range of responses we had to being stuck at home. A representatuve six-word story: "COVID-19 taught us resilience amidst adversities."
I was given an advance reader's copy by #NetGalley for my review. #terriblehorriblenogoodyear

This has to be the covid book of the year!!! What an excellent resource book to look back on years to come and remember 2020 as the ridiculous teaching year…never forget!!!
As a teacher, we have recreated the classroom. We have zoom taught, social distanced taught, Google Classroom taught and some have even quit! We have been pelted by words that have been branded in our minds forever.
Whether a fellow teacher, yourself or the whole school system has been attacked, regardless it has hurt educators. We have stood in your shoes and wondered “What the heck?”
As a nation, rural schools, city schools or homeschool has felt the impact of Covid-19. We are still clueless what is right and what is wrong. We have leaders that throw their hands in the air and say “ Do the best you can!” We can’t please everyone so we please no one. Recently, I saw a meme Teachers are compared to the stewards on the Titanic. We all know how that ended.
So on a brighter note, this book is a reminder to 2020-2021….and however more years we have to experience this pandemic…..it has the many comments and quotes that were made by children and adults alike. I loved it and can’t wait to purchase it!! There were many “aha” moments and “I remember that!” I laughed aloud and also cringed at some reminders.
We have laughed, cried, lost many teachers, family members through this pandemic and most of all learned there are many of you that stand together and band with us. Some have offered their sympathy and prayers. Then there are those quick to point out the flaws as we struggle to regain our footing and keep educating a nation that has lost respect for a profession that continues to love your children…even the ones that have been told to disregard the adults.
Thank you NetGalley for this awesome book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I love the concept of a six word memoir. I especially loved that the memoirs were about Covid-19 pandemic. It was interesting to read how others were doing during this time.

Some of the memoirs were funny and there were quite a few that I related to. There were some illustrations with the memoirs which was great. I think having to write a six word memoir would really help with writer’s block. I think the six word memoir concept is simple, but very impactful.

I also enjoyed reading the mini essays as well. However, I do wish there were more six word memoirs.

This was mediocre at best. I didn't really enjoy the way this book was set up. It seemed pedantic and not at all engaging to the reader. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, sadly.

I like reading about education and about how other people make school better. Well, the spring of 2020 was something elso for everyone. Reading "A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year", a collection of short memoirs, reminded me that it's never just us.⁠
Some of the poems/ stories/ memoirs are relatable, some are gut-punchingly true, others are funny, others very sad. The entire collection captures what school has been like since the pandemic started. Although the entries are from people in US, I can vouch it's been the same for educators in many other countries. I, personally saw myself in many of them.⁠
This idea is also wonderful to implement in the classroom at any level, in any subject. It gave me something to think about and I can't wait to get my students writing. Afterall, six words can tell a story.

5★
“Numbers rose, but SUN did, too. - Paloma Lenz”

That’s one we all should remember.

Hemingway started it, famous story goes.
Challenge: write novel, only six words.
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Pandemic project challenged kids, teachers, parents.

Results terrific! Thoughtful, sad, funny, universal.

Illustrations, essays. Classroom kits are free.

Samples follow. Try this at home!

“Well, sure didn’t see that coming. - Alexis Davidson”

Mask on. Zoom on. PJs on. - Sami Bell, 10

Noun: Zoom ... Verb: Zoom ... Adjective: Zoom - Jennifer Schneider, teacher

Getting handle on pandemic. Need lid. - Krystyna Fedosejevs

Quota of family time was exceeded. - Dana Calvo

DADDY, go put on some PANTS! - Hazel Hoffman, 11

For Sale: prom dress, never worn. - Caroline Richardson, 19

Finally meeting neighbors after eight years. - Jaylene Henderson

Alexa, play wash your hands, please. - Zoey Valles, 5

Finally finished YouTube. Ending is disappointing. - Clara Bijl, Isa’s mom

Wonderful project and everyone enjoyed it.

I did, too, and so will you.

Now you know how, try it!

Thanks to #NetGalley and Six-Word Memoirs.

(Best on paper or big screen)

What a refreshing book! I hadn’t heard of six-word memoirs until now, and the concept is so genius. The things so many of these children have written are so profound, tongue-in-cheek and just brilliant. I did not find any of this triggering despite the subject matter, and can see this being a beautiful coffee table book with the mixture of profession and student artwork.

I received an advance copy of, A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year, by Six-Word Memoirs. This is a good book. Everyone had a bad year last year, its nice to know your not alone in that.

I had no idea what this book was really about when I requested an arc. It was surprisingly interesting reading some of the six-word memoirs. I think having experienced the pandemic myself, the feelings are still fresh and relevant, so I could relate. However, the format on the Kindle app is very annoying. The words are muddled together, you cannot tell if there are chapters or not, the drawings are cut in half on some pages, there are different fonts and font sizes as well. I believe it would have been a better read without these format issues.

Views of the pandemic as seen by students and teachers. Quite eye opening with the six word memoirs. A view of the world and written in succinct form..

This was my first venture into six word memoirs and I was not disappointed. In a world that seems a little strange reading six words written by children, parents and educators reinstated the fact that we are all in this together and everyone’s thoughts and feelings are valid.

Definitely worth a read.

This would be a great tool to use in the classroom to help students with SEL learning after the pandemic. I will be looking to buy a copy to use in my classroom.

I hadn't heard of the six-word memoirs before, but I was intrigued. Describing something in six words sounds like a challenge, especially for someone who is as wordy as I am (just ask my editor). However, I can definitely see how it can appeal to students. Instead of the pressure of writing a full paper, they can express their thoughts in six consise words.

Through six-word submissions as well as essays from educators, this book describes the pandemic in words that we all certainly thought:

"You're muted. You're muted! You're MUTED!"

"Not enough sweatpants for this gig."

And plenty more about surviving life in quarantine, homeschooling, teaching on Zoom and more. It was cute, it was fun, but it didn't say or provide anything new than many of us saw in memes on Facebook. The stories/essays were interesting, but this book was just cute. I love the idea of a six-word memoir and I think this did a good job with capturing a pandemic, especially from an educational perspective.

Before hearing about A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year, I had not read any of the "6 word memoir" books. For anyone else unfamiliar with these collections, here is my understanding of how it works (simplified, I am sure): people are invited to write 6 words that capture the feeling of the book's topic; these 6 word memoirs are collected across all ages and groups of people and published to express society's diverse feelings on the subject.

The topic of A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year is the COVID-19 pandemic, and all of the 6 word memoirs are written by students, parents, and teachers. The collection also contains illustrated 6 word memoirs, again created by students and art classes.

The collection is funny and touching and insightful. The thoughts are grouped by theme; for example, all the memoirs mentioning Zoom disasters (online school!) are grouped together, all the mentions of new hobbies, pets, and baking endeavors are grouped together, and all the thoughts about children who miss their grandparents, need their friends, and fear isolation are grouped together.

I love the idea behind this book; the 6 word memoir is such an amazing activity for students to express themselves and capture their thoughts in a short snapshot. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a teacher, so I found this "Six Word Memoirs" book especially poignant. While the book contains some short essays by educators, the majority of the book is made up of the memoirs themselves– from students, teachers, and parents. (Some of the memoirs include artwork, too!)

This book was a quick and easy read, but the memoirs moved me...
"Not happy. Not sad. Just empty. (Tristan N)" stopped me in my tracks. How did this kid so concisely sum up my entire pandemic experience?
"Social distancing is this introvert's dream. (Phoebe W)" made me laugh. Right on, friend!
"Senior class president. No senior class" (Whisper Schroeder)" made me mourn again for my adult children's pandemic losses (my youngest graduated HS in 2020 and my oldest graduated college in 2021).

Some really beautiful insights in this book, along with information for teachers about creating Six Word Memoir lessons for students.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year took me back to the first few months of the pandemic when we were all trying to get used to being at home more and doing what needed to be done to stop the virus.
Now for some of us were still having to do that, and I am one of those people. Because of this reading how so many other people were feeling the same thing that I am and was still feeling.

This pandemic made us all realize and change some things in our life. From trying to figure out how to do almost everything remotely. But it also made us realize the important things in life and the things that mean the most to us. From family and friends to getting to go out when we choose to instead of just when we have to do. It's been a lot for all of us and it's been a very memorable and teaching experience.

I felt so much connection to so many of the 6-word stories and I loved all the little art pieces thrown in to illustrate some of the stories.

Overall I enjoyed and appreciated this book. It helps show that we're all not alone and it's not over yet, but we've learned a lot in the past almost 2 years now, and we can do this and make it finally end hopefully soon.

This collection of stories showcases the many feelings and experiences of the initial lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, through the stories of educators, students, and parents. It’s a quick read and every reader is guaranteed to find stories that resonate with their experience, and allows readers to acknowledge what a horrible experience it was for a lot of people, and grieving that time is a good step in helping heal.
I do however think the timing of the book isn’t necessarily great. As of the date of publication and review (mid October 2021), it’s not over. The initial lockdown is done, but the pandemic itself is very much ongoing. Reading this felt like I was allowing myself to acknowledge the negatives, but also like I was supposed to be comforting myself by the fact it’s over, which it isn’t. Reading this reminded me that too often I still feel those things.