Learnt

By Edward M. Baldwin

Kenny Houston is a white teenager with problems. His grades are in the toilet; his friend-count qualifies him for leprosy; his bathroom scale hates him; he's been challenged to a fight more times than... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979407443
• ISBN13: 9780979407444
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Jazlo & Lossi Pub
• Length: 363 Pages

Customer Reviews

Touching story for teens and adults

Lincoln High School is where behaviorally challenged students are sent. They don't earn a diploma for completing their courses, so there is really no motivation for them to learn. Tony Avery, an English teacher who is black, accepts a job there in order to get some experience before seeking a position at a better school. He faces the challenges of trying to motivate and educate the unruly students, while also trying to earn their respect. Avery ends up learning many things from his students, especially Kenny, a white student who was sent to Lincoln for fighting at his other school. Author Baldwin has an excellent way of making the characters come to life. Mr. Avery was not depicted as the idealistic new teacher who thought he was going to fix everything that was wrong with the school system. His doubts and frustrations were clearly demonstrated. However, his efforts to fight for all of his students to be eligible to try to return to a "regular" school showed that he believed in them and their futures. Kenny's struggles were also portrayed well, told in first person, making it very moving. His difficulties with his alcoholic mother and his weight issues were sources of constant embarrassment. An important part of Learnt deals with racial issues. Baldwin does a fine job of showing that different races can get along as well as learn from each other. Tony has a white fiancée-and they seem so perfect for each other. When Kenny finally makes a friend for the first time in his life, it is with a black male, even though Kenny hates black people because of an incident when he was younger. At first it was a little difficult to decipher some of the African-American dialect that was written, but I caught on fairly quickly. Using the dialect made the characters and the situations portrayed seem more real. It also helped demonstrate the point that just because someone does not speak what is considered standard English, his or her thoughts and opinions are not less valuable. This book will touch the reader's heart from the beginning to the unexpected incident at the end. Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended for teenagers and adults-for the lessons to be learned.

A different point of view

Life isn't all what we see. Learnt offers you a chance to see life from a new perspective and through someone else's eyes. An enjoyable read that keeps you pulling for the good guy.

'Time is either invested or spent'

LEARNT is for this reader one of the most powerful, engaging, poignant, and learned books of the year. These may sound like excessive praise for a first major novel by Edward M. Baldwin, but if this novel gains the readership it deserves over the next year it likely will make its way to the top 10 list: reading LEARNT is 'time invested, not spent'! Edward M. Baldwin is an African American writer whose background as a high school English and literacy teacher in Florida provided the seeds of inspiration that drive this novel. The book not only tells a perfectly formed and molded and executed story, but it also addresses many important concepts that are necessary to face and even more necessary to mend. Dealing with contemporary attitudes and prejudices concerning education, racism, interracial marriage, crime, abusive parenting and the coexistent abusive response from the victim children, Baldwin stirs this hefty stew with the added ingredients of teacher/student relationships and semiotics and the result is first an excellent story, and second a plea for change and growth. African American Tony Avery returns to his Florida home after college where he gained his degree in English, learned the fine art of speaking and writing, met and became engaged to a white girl, Sarah, who accompanies Tony to his loving home, fully at ease with her new family (as they are with her). Tony decides to take on a job teaching at Lincoln High School (a primarily African American last ditch stand of a repository for tough students) while Sarah returns North to complete her studies. Tony is encouraged by his loving and wise Mama and takes his place in front of a classroom of foulmouthed kids who show little respect for the 'Uncle Tom-sounding' new English teacher. Through a series of events, events that include introduction of unforgettable characters - each with social and mental burdens to carry - Tony finds that language and communication must be centered on mutual respect. Tony can lapse into 'Choklish', the name he assigns to the colloquial 'English' of the students, and in showing the students that his background is anchored in theirs, he lifts the class to standards of learning and compassion that have been sorely missing in this school. One student that enters the classroom soon after Tony's arrival is the obese, unpopular, parentally abused Kenny, and it is Tony's manner in which he alters Kenny's self concept and life by honoring his hidden gifts and nursing his social needs with true friends that drives the novel to its stunning conclusion. The reader of Baldwin's book must allow 'time to invest and spend' with this opus. Baldwin uses brilliant 'translations' of the colloquial African American dialect allowing the reader to climb inside a language known to many of us as Rap sounds. But reading this 'new language' as Baldwin so carefully spells it out is time-consuming - until our brains begins to feel the flow and the honest beauty of the c

A MUST READ!!

'LEARNT' is a MUST READ, for EVERY teen, parent, teacher - anyone & everyone living in today's society!!! While being advertised as a 'classroom drama', this book contains so much more! Social issues, teen issues, teacher issues, school issues, race issues... The author did an outstanding job developing his characters, telling their stories, from their perceptions, their points of view. I don't want to give away any 'plots or storylines' - but anyone that reads this book can relate to the characters, on one level or another! You get so engrossed in the characters and their experiences, that it is disappointing to finish the book - leaving you wanting more! Having read well over 100 books this past year, "LEARNT" definitely rates as one of the best! CONGRATS to the author, on his debut book - I anxiously look forward to more!

Everyone can learn so many valuable lessons from it...

I absolutely loved "Learnt". I think the world would be a better place if every 9th grader were required to read it. Everyone can learn SO many valuable lessons from it. I was immediately drawn into the lives of Kenny and Tony and felt like I knew them personally. I'll never forget them. I found myself overcome with emotion more than once, not to mention on the edge of my seat! I love the way the plot twists, turns and ties together. This book has made me appreciate the importance of reading again.