Mask up. Volume Down. Class Continues.

I was inspired by the 6-word memoirs in A Terrible, Horrible No Good Year: Hundreds of Stories on the Pandemic by Teachers, Students & Parents. Thank you to Netgalley and Six-Word Memoirs for sharing this book with me. So many poignant and creative memoirs that shed light on the state of education amidst the pandemic. I lived it and loved this!

Thanks for opportunity to read from NetGalley. It was a quick read that added some humor to a hard topic.
6 words from children and teachers about the pandemic. Enjoyed reading it. Had some laughs I . Will for more 6 word stories.

This book was fantastic surprise!

I didn't expect much of Six-Word Memoirs - after all, how much can one say with 6 words? Well, I was wrong, because summing up a pandemic in six words really allows writers to dig deep into the experience to extract the most relevant phrase, or feeling, or event of the lockdowns. Some sentences even came from 3 or 5-year-olds and were incredibly thoughtful!

Put together, these Six-Word Memoirs really capture this unique moment in history through the lens of children, parents and teachers, with clever, deep or funny short sentences.

"Big plans today: oh, never mind"
"Social distancing myself from the fridge"
"Lost some friends and found myself"
"Hun, you're still on mute"
"Extrovert became introvert. Hesitant to revert."

While the book could have gotten slightly repetitive with only these short, 6-words sentences, they are interspersed with drawings and testimonies from teachers that allow us an even better dive into the experiences of those affected with school closures. We lived through the same pandemic, and being an university student, I expected to imagine well what school closures would be like, yet reading these sentences allowed me to better grasp how momentous the pandemic was for many of these pupils, teachers and parents.

*I received an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion*

If I want to share my love for this book, I'll need more than 6 words! We did this activity at a staff meeting this year, and I truly enjoyed the challenge. In our overly verbose culture, spending some time thinking about what you want to say in a concise (and witty!) way has immense value. I read many that made me laugh, but a few that pulled at my heartstrings as well. This book touched my teacher soul.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that the pandemic has had an impact on our lives in some way. There were good parts, bad parts, and just about everything in between.

Educators and students in particular had their worlds turned upside down and had to adapt quickly to everchanging rules and guidelines while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy. This book memorializes their (and parents!) experiences in the six-word story format.

Some were funny:

"Pandemic: zero out of five stars." - Penelope Williams, 11
"This doesn't spark joy at all." - Kimberly Ann Jardenil
"It goes over your nose, pal." - Stina Perkins
"My cat is tired of me." - Titus P.

While others invoked sadness:

"Six feet never felt so far." - Ava Russ, 15
"Connectivity issues disconnected teachers from me." - Phoenix Galicia
"Depression is more depressing without hugs." - Maya Sanchez
"Sadly, kids seem quieter after COVID." - Mario Montanaro, teacher

And some were all too (personally) relatable:

"Give me a break. I'm tired." - Paulina Bautista
"I'm sorry. I was on mute." - Kay Raye
"Tiger King. Schitt's Creek. Ted Lasso." - Krish Mukerjee
"Social distancing is this introvert's dream!" - Phoebe W.

One word that comes up over and over again is resilience. Humans are a resilient species but we all have our limits...which leads me to another word that appeared in this book many times: grace. If nothing else I hope we've learned to give each other (and possibly more importantly, ourselves) a little more grace. There's no denying that we all have struggles and things we're trying to manage through a little goodwill can go a long way.

In the spirit of this book my six word review summary is: Interesting takes on an unprecedented time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been a teacher for six years now, and I can honestly say that last year was the hardest year I've experienced. So many things changed and many of the things I love about my job just weren't there anymore.

I was hoping that this collection of Six-Word memoirs would give me a little more insight in how other teachers, students and parents experienced this time. Though I saw several recognisable things come by, I did feel like I was missing depth or context with most stories. Six words just isn't enough to express the underlying thoughts in most cases, so I had a hard time relating.

In the end I was a bit disappointed, though I did LOL a few times over shared hurt.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year by Six-Word Memoirs is a creative, insightful, thought-provoking book told from the point of view from teachers, students, and parents. Each entry in this book told in six words gives readers a glimpse of what life is like during a pandemic.

This book spoke many of the thoughts and feelings I have had over the last year and a half as an educator. I heard my students' voices through the six-word memoirs that were included in this book. As adults, we tend to forget the profound thoughts and insights students have. This book brings those thoughts and insights to light. These memoirs made me chuckle, tear up, and stop to ponder. Thank you for sharing such thoughts with the world!

I loved the concept of this, but I found the actual reading of it tedious. Maybe I'd enjoy it in short snippets

November 2006...a date that should live in...whatever the opposite of "infamy" is...that's when Larry Smith started SixWordMemoir.com, and unleashed the haiku poet in every English-speaker's soul. My own first one: "Not quite what I had planned" submitted on Twitter in 2013.

Six words doesn't leave room for prolixity and overdramatization. It's what makes the idea so irresistible. It's what makes the original challenge, issued legendarily to Ernest Hemingway, to tell a six-word story (his, if you need refreshing, was "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn") so deeply memorable. We're creatures of story and we love to immerse ourselves in language. When we take a short, sharp plunge into the Otherness of others, we're happy, happy souls. As witness to this truth, the collection I'm reviewing is the tenth brought into print! This is like that delicious, anonymous, yet public confessional, PostSecret. It's similarly public, it's more concise, and it's possibly even more revealing...but it's all part of the same urge, the need I know so many feel to unburden themselves, to celebrate their milestones, and to be seen and heard where it feels safe, especially when it doesn't feel safe to be any of those things in their community.

So here we are in a pandemic. Over a year without anything like normalcy. I guess it's no surprise to anyone that there were some feelings that needed to be bled out, and SixWordMemoir was exactly the right tool to lance the thing. The choice to direct this collection at educators, students, and parents trapped in the nightmare of too much togetherness plus too little social contact was inevitable and also genius. I read these wondering how the hell I would even begin to cope with kids, job, spouse, house, and the free-floating anxiety of not knowing what the hell was happening and how soon it would kill someone I love!

For a measly $2.99 on your Kindle, get one for yourself. But if you want to give a paper copy to someone special, ORDER NOW! (And the tree book would be great because illustrations are just *better* on a paper page.)

Some SixWordMemoirs to show you what I mean:
<blockquote><B>Six feet never felt so far. — Ava Russ, 15</b>
A young woman whose entire adolescence was interrupted by this awful event makes her private pain part of a national conversation. I admire her. I know many, many young people will relate to her.
<B>It goes over your nose, pal. — Stina Perkins</b>
Yes. Yes, it does.
<B>Getting handle on pandemic. Need lid. — Krystyna Fedosejevs</b>
Budding philosopher. Also comedian. Needs job.
<B>For sale: prom dress, never worn. — Caroline Richardson, 19</b>
Extra poignance points for emulating the Hemingway original. Brava. Now go get your MFA.
<B>How can emptiness feel so heavy? — Lincoln H.
Turning friends to strangers...all alone. — Chelsea P.
Not happy. Not sad. Just empty. — Tristan N.</b>
These are all culled from the same elementary school. No one ever gets to tell me how kids aren't ready for the way the real world works, or that they don't have the skills to process the adult world. This gives those lies their brightest exit sign.</blockquote>
I was very touched by the essays written by teachers and other education professionals. They're not long, maybe 500 words at most, but they pack a wallop in their palpable grief and frustration at not being able to do what they love doing. One librarian here in New York shared that their students were able to come together to have Zoom sessions (and may I just say that Zoom has earned my undying gratitude for keeping me in touch with my Young Gentleman Caller on the regular?) with writers and poets after reading their work. One such writer was Luke Dani Blue, whose story about a trans person crossing the country (Canada, one presumes, as they're based in Alberta) by Greyhound bus elicited this question from a student:
<blockquote>"You and your characters seem to thrive and dream of uncertain circumstances because they hold so much possibility, yet very often in life we are disappointed and miscalculate the trajectory of our new paths. What would you say is your margin of error when it comes to dream versus actual trajectory?"
Blue was so stunned by the question, all they could say was, "Woah, I feel so seen by that question. I'm going to have to think about that one."</blockquote>
Yes, "seen" is the right word for it. Seen, seen through, seen off, seen! Seen indeed. Teenagers are, and we forget this at our societal peril, adults without perspective or impulse control. Their intelligence will never be sharper. Their training in how to use it is all we have left to offer them...and this goddamned plague means we can not offer it to them in the same, personal way. But, and this is the reason I bring it up, permaybehaps this new, screen-intermediated way will offer the young learners some advantages. I doubt that question would've come out of the asker's mouth with that level of fluency. A chance to think about it, try different ways of phrasing it, probably made that the best question it could possibly be.

So there's a hopeful side to this misery after all....
<blockquote><B>Now I'm a barber. Who knew? — John Tehan</b>
Golden lining. Career opportunity? Probably not.
<B>Masks protect us from farts, too! — Ruby Bryan</b>
Special Ed teacher whose kids are profoundly disabled. But still kids...farts are hilarious to kids.
<B>Numbers rose, but SUN did too. — Paloma Lenz</b>
Yes. It did indeed. And it rose a little higher for me today. Thanks, Paloma, although we'll never meet you've made an old, disabled stranger a lot happier than he was before he read your words.</blockquote>

That, in a nutshell, is the magic of the internet.

Teachers and students share their thoughts and experiences about the year of 2020 - COVID-19, quarantining, online school, etc. in six words. A really quick book that was a bit of everything: funny, sad, thought-provoking and emotional.
This was my first encounter with the six word memoir books; it was fascinating to see how little is needed to convey so much.
Thanks to #netgalley and #sixwordmemoirs for this ARC of #aterriblehorriblenogoodyear in exchange for an honest review.

It was interesting to read these six word memoirs of school in the age of a pandemic. Most were written by students but some were by teachers and parents. They did a good job of revealing the angst and struggles so prevalent during this momentous time. The art insertions were quite a positive addition to the book as well. This book is a fast read and one worth reading.

“Numbers rose, but sun did, too.”

This book is a beautiful reflection of the collective experience during the first year of the pandemic. It is a collection of 6 word quotes from students of all ages, teachers, and parents summing up their experience of this historical year,

The simplicity of keeping each entry to 6 words provided succinct, digestible perspectives. Some were humorous, others surprisingly poignant. I found myself wishing they had been cut down even more to only include the ones that really pack a punch. However, the diversity in tone and depth ensure that everyone who reads this will surely find themselves identifying with someone (or many people) on the page.

A major step in healing is knowing you’re not alone. This collection cuts through the felt isolation of the last year and reminds us that we weren’t as alone as we thought we were.

For those who are just learning about this 6-word phenomenon, you are in for a treat! This book is the newest installment in a series of 6-word memoirs inspired, so the story goes, by Earnest Hemingway. These memoirs are the reflections of students, teachers, and parents during and about their COVID-19 school-related experience. Art and essays, also reflecting on the pandemic learning experience, are interspersed among these observant and heart-wrenching memoirs. Although I am not a student or teacher in the traditional sense, these shared experiences recalled my own pandemic life (past and present)--both positive and negative. These memoirs are observant, inspired, and heart-wrenching. They are clever, brilliant, concise, touching, funny, and inspiring. I highly recommend!
I received an advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I just reviewed A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year by Six-Word Memoirs. #NetGalley

These six word memoirs by students, parents, and teachers reflecting on the pandemic, for me was unique. As one teacher said, using only six words teaches students to break things down into smaller bites. While reading the book, I thought this most of helped so many people, take them away from all that was happening around them, to change the way they think about it to sum it up in a six-word sentence.
It was nice to read the stories, their six-word sentence, and it got some excited, and it was a way of taking a terrible, horrible, no good year, and make it memorable. I think this will become a treasured time capsule, of making it through the pandemic.
I received an ARC from six-word memoirs through NetGalley and I highly recommend you read this with your family. It seemed to take me away from all that was going on and into a quiet place.

The year was 2020, of course— the year that the Covid pandemic changed the operating rules for so many students, educators, and parents. Using the clever vehicle of collecting Six-Word-Memoirs, the book becomes a poignant journal of a true plague year. The selection and organization of the entries is inspired, and the design of the book is colorful and upbeat enough to balance the prescient and sobering thoughts. A touching collection.

Heartfelt, poignant, and funny, these six word memoirs by students, parents, and teachers reflecting on the pandemic we’re everything I didn’t know I wanted to read.

I loved how there were so many walks of life represented, including incarcerated teens and their teacher. It proves, once again, that while we are all different, we are all very much the same. Pandemic times have really divided our nation, and yet the emotions felt should serve to unite instead, if only everyone were willing to actually listen to their neighbor.

I love this book. It was sent to me
Electronically from Netgalley for reviewed. Although I am retired, I still teach on FaceTime grands. Some in person grands. This book is fantastic. For parents and kids...for teachers...don’t miss this one. I would give it ten stars...

arry Smith has edited and written several books of Six Word Memoirs. THIS book is by students, parents and teachers about the pandemic year.

Different fonts are used. Beautiful colored pages are created by students at Kansas City Art Institute. Families’ memoirs are on the same page.

A variety of teachers wrote a few paragraphs about their experiences — the librarian, the music teacher, the physics teacher, a teacher of incarcerated students. Each had to create ways to overcome barriers given during the year.

Unusual and delightful book.

CW: COVID-19 pandemic

Thank you to NetGalley and Six-Word Memoirs for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This time capsule of a book asked people, "What's your six-word pandemic story?" This was specific to education - teachers, students, and parents. As a teacher through all of this - and currently teaching remotely - I knew I had to read this. It was refreshing to see some of my thoughts and feelings reflected in the words of others, that amidst the chaos, we "get" each other. I also like the six-word concept in general.

You're linked to schools? Read this