Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

BecauseofYou,This isMe (JazAmpaw-Farr, IndependentThinkingPress,£16.99) If Jaz Ampaw-Farr is a familiar name to you, it will likely be due to her popular andwidely-sharedmotivational talks themed around resilience, leadership and wellbeing. Prior to her speaking career, she was a literacy adviser and a primary school teacher, as well as a one-time candidate for the UKversion of TheApprentice . And before that, she was the survivor of a childhood characterised by serial neglect and abuse. Part memoir, part instructional guide for the country’s teachers, this book recounts howAmpaw-Farr was able to withstand, and eventually escape an early upbringing that was, based on the accounts presented here, genuinely harrowing. Be advised that the detailsmake for an extremely difficult read in places. The book’s other aim is immediately apparent fromhow it’s structured.The five main chapters are all named after a different teacher fromAmpaw-Farr’s own schooldays, each serving as a character study and detailed breakdown of all the things that teacher said and did to assist the youthful Ampaw-Farr in ways large and small – fromMrs Cook,who treated her professed ambitions to be a teacher with encouraging respect, toMrWilliams,who helped refer her and her younger brother to Social Services.Taken as a whole, this book illustrates the profound, life-altering impact that teachers can have on their students’ livesmore powerfully than any set of statistics ever could. Youbeganwritingthe‘Descent intoDarkness’ serieswhenyouwere 13–howhardwas it to developthestoryoverall that time? I wrote the first three books back-to-back when I was 13, sowas verymuch‘on it’ – but then I stopped to domyGCSE exams,A Levels and universitycourse, so therewas a five-year breakwhen I didn’t write anything. WhenCOVIDhappened, I wasworking two-part time jobs – one at a psychiatric hospital, and another as a private clinical psychologyassistant,having studied for a psychologydegree. I realised then thatmy passion for psychologyand old love of fantasycould intertwine, andwith theworld essentially‘on pause’, I had enough time at home to focus onwriting. Didworkingwiththatmaterial byyour youngerselftakesomediscipline? Rewriting the first volume I’dwritten all those years agowas a labour of love. I knew I already had a good foundation there,but also knew I couldn’t be afraid ofmaking changes to the original draft. Wereyougettingmuch feedbackwhilethe storywasgestating? For a good seven to eight years, it was pretty much justme,but after I joinedTikTok in around 2022, I startedposting about it and sharing snippets of scenes.That led tome recruiting five beta readers viaTikTok after I put avideomessage out to see if any volunteerswouldbewilling to read it and give their feedback.Getting honest, critical advice fromreaders I didn’t already know really helpedme to better understandwhat was working,what couldbe elevated andwhat couldbe removed. What advicewouldyougiveothereducators whomightbe interested increatingand publishingtheirownfiction? I’ve found it exceptionallydifficult tomanage the two careers ofwriting/content creation and teaching, especially since I’mstill near the start ofmyteaching career.The saving grace formewas having a first draft towork from, plus a detailedplan for future books. If I have a two-hourwindowat the end ofmydayafter doingmymarking, I’ll use the time to focus solelyon a specific scenewith certain characters and an outcome that’s already been planned.Themore detailedmyplanning is, the easier the scenes are towrite, as I’m not just sitting there staring at a blank screen. Your initial plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but themore detailed it is, the easier it will be to execute later on. AndyDarcyTheo isasecondaryschool psychologyteacherandcontinues topost on TikTokand Instagramas@andydarcytheo ON THE RADAR Meet the author ANDY DARCYTHEO ATownWithoutTime: GayTalese’sNewYork (GayTalese,MarinerClassics,£20) Anyone wanting to show their students how to write compelling prose could do far worse than introduce themto GayTalese, and the keen eye for detail and ear for dialogue that makes his essays such a masterclass in observation.As a practitioner of what was once heralded as ‘The NewJournalism’, his work vividly shows how factual accounts can be rendered in prose so lively and vibrant that that it almost feels like you’re reading a novel.As well as his acclaimed essay on Frank Sinatra, other subjects tackled in this collection include the cats of NewYork, a homeless woman with two homes, and the obituarywriter keenlywaiting for his subjects to drop dead so that he can at last see his work in print. Some of these stories are so richly told, it can almost seemas though you’re right there with him.Amust for English students. ReviewedbyTerry Freedman TheDarkThatHidesUs (AndyDarcyTheo,£9.99,Simon&Schuster) At first glance,AndyDarcyTheo’s ‘Descent into Darkness’ series resembles as a YA fantasy‘greatest hits’,with its quest narrative centring on several teen ‘Chosen Ones’ battling themachinations of a sinister antagonist. In the first volume, The Light That Blinds Us , a school trip to Stonehenge brought together our heroes Alexis, Demi, Blaise and Caeli,who discovered theywere the inheritors of amythical society,The Elementals,withmastery of unique powers derived fromearth,wind,water and fire.This suitably darker follow-up sees the group hunkered down, preparing to take on the evil Mortemand his plans to shroud the world in perpetual darkness – while also confronting some home truths about themselves and each other. For all the intricate world-building, the prose positively zips along, aided by snappy repartee and romantic intrigue between the four richly drawn leads.Those wanting a big, boldYA saga to sink their teeth into will findmuch to enjoy here. 39 teachwire.net/secondary B O O K R E V I E WS