Nicholson Baker: Substitute

Nicholson Baker's Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids (Blue Rider Press) was born of a desire to write a book articulating his theories about education – theories based on having had kids in school. Realizing his premise was weak, as he'd never been a teacher, he embarked on the adventure of a lifetime by becoming a substitute teacher. What he found was that he, like every substitute teacher, was unqualified to lead a class that was not his own. He also found that along with his uncertainty and terror, was genuine fun and wonder. He takes the reader into a world where students simply want to surprise the world by doing something amazing in their own amazing way.

Read an excerpt from Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids.