Sam Swope
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THE ARABOOLIES OF LIBERTY STREETWIN A FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY! Teachers! Send me an email describing how you've used The Araboolies in your classroom. If you can attach Araboolean artwork or photos, that would be great! Or you might send me a link to an Araboolie YouTube video or a website documenting what you did. Kids and parents! Let me know what the book has meant to you and your family. Send photos! Links to videos! Relate a family Araboolie anecdote! I won't be able to post every response on this website, but if I do post yours, I'll send you a free autographed copy of the book. At the very least, I promise to answer each e-mail... so say hi! THE ARABOOLIES IS NOW A MUSICAL! Araboolie antics onstage.
(photo by Scott Suchman) Or, if you prefer, there's also an opera version written especially for school productions. How cool is that?!  Writing this book (and living it) changed my life. It taught me what it meant to be a teacher, both for good and bad. And I learned a lot about how to get kids to write original, powerful, wacky and sad stories and poems. Inspiring creativity in my students I taught inspired creativity in me and gave my life meaning. I Am a Pencil was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. It won a Christopher Award, a Books for a Better Life Award, and The Bechtel Prize, which I had never heard of but am glad to have. It was also featured on National Public Radio's program "All Things Considered" and you can hear that interview here. The book has been translated into Japanese, Korean and Portuguese. Click here to read about my alternately hilarious and moving trip to Japan to promote its publication there. Here are some nice things people have said about the book: "Swope's marvelous, moving book revives the teaching memoir . . . And takes it to new realms of tenderness, insight and humanity." - Phillip Lopate "If only Swope's book were a lesson plan we could follow." - Los Angeles Times Book Review "It's really hard to communicate the sheer pleasure in teaching, and really connecting with, students like the ones Swope describes in such rich and generous detail. Is there a book that more convincingly demonstrates that any students, anywhere, from any backgrounds or surmounting any obstacles, can be led to love poetry, to read like madmen, to write compulsively and be open to the possibilities of the word on the page? I Am a Pencil should be read by anyone who wants to find inspiration in today's students, teachers and the Sam Swopes that enhance the lives of both." - Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius "A magical journey. Sam Swope clearly has a gift for inspiring in others the make-believe, and so it's a treat to watch as he taps the imaginings of his immigrant students, and in doing so discover the realities of their newfound lives here." - Alex Kotlowitz, Pulitzer-prize winning author of There Are No Children Here |
