Hello friends, happy Wednesday, I hope you’re all well! Today I’m posting my review of Michelle Kuo’s book, Reading With Patrick.

Reading With Patrick by: Michelle Kuo: After graduating from Harvard, Michelle Kuo found herself in the small town of Helena, Arkansas as part of Teach for America. From there her eyes were opened to the realities of small towns and the opportunities they don’t offer. This is where she meets Patrick Browning a young student who shows potential and there begins her mentorship and friendship. This book didn’t move the reader like it seemed to have done to many Goodreads reviewers. At its core, this book was about a teacher teaching her students and going above and beyond with one to ensure they got an education and how that sprouted into a life-long friendship. Somewhere along the way this main plot would get lost in the many facts and statistics that Kuo kept throwing at the reader. Not to say that they weren’t important facts or stats, but it started to bog down her writing. This felt more like a starting point to learning about poverty in the south of the U.S. and how poor circumstances can lead to poor outcomes, especially for people of colour. There were so many important topics to take away from this book but the reader didn’t feel like this was a very compelling read. The reader did like Kuo’s writing and how she tied all of the chapters with a book that corresponded to something she was teaching Patrick; that was cleverly done. Overall, this felt a little underwhelming in terms of story but was very insightful in the realities of life in the south.