Reviews

Dear Teacher by Jack Sheffield

faitelle's review against another edition

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I've read some gentle books in my time but none quite so gentle as 'Dear Teacher'.
Nothing mind-blowing here, but this series is best enjoyed tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate, or get the audiobook & let it accompany you on a walk through the countryside.

casacostello's review against another edition

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2.0

I actually started this quite a few years ago and somehow it got abandoned. As part of the Dusty Bookshelf project I’m trying to tackle my TBR pile and this book was the first I ever added back in 2011.

This was a quick book as I expected, I just didn’t love it and feel the heartwarming feel I expected to. I get the impression that Mr Sheffield is a truly nice man - unfortunately the other characters didn’t seem to shine through in this book. I did enjoy the ‘Will they/won’t they’ romance throughout the book though - it was that that made me continue.

I’m wondering if maybe the book has aged or maybe I have and I just want more from the humour. I felt some of the linguistic comedy moments were a little forced and unnatural.

I’m sure it’s me and not the book!

junelaurens's review against another edition

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5.0

After reading this book, I want to be a teacher living in an idyllic village in Yorkshire!!

It's written in the style of a teacher relating his memoires of being a Head of a village primary school in Yorkshire in 1979. It's possibly *too* idyllic, *too* perfect and maybe a bit twee for some people but hey, it's escapism, and in our modern world of financial crises and political unrest, don't we all need an escapist world to go to?

I remember reading the Miss Read books when I was at school, and Jack Sheffield's novels are just like them. He is, effectively, Mr Read. I was at primary school in the late 1970s, so I appreciated the mentions of the "fads" in pop songs and TV shows that Sheffield puts into his stories. In fact, I enjoyed "Dear Teacher" so much, I have downloaded some more of his books onto my Kindle, and am looking forward to his newest offering "Educating Jack".

In a nutshell, I loved it!
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