Young ladies! Listen up! Ahem!

You’re on the lookout for a book that will inspire your young charges --- suck them in, grab them & whirl them, dance them to the Music of the Spheres, hook them up to the Important Things In Life, maybe Teach a Valuable Lesson --- something not written in the gray undistinguished prose of so many YA novelettes, all those Newbery Prize winners --- something with a bright thread of John Keats running through it --- something that will leave them elevated, reflective, and, in times to come, breathless, somewhat grateful.

In previous years teachers have fixated on The Light In The Forest, Go Ask Alice, The Outsiders, A Day No Pigs Would Die --- all with varying degrees of success. And the internet --- especially Amazon --- is filled with comment by surly teenagers who hate the adult-level Victorian novels forced on them in high school. Silas Marner. Great Expectations. Far From the Madding Crowd. You know the rest. (You and I may like these, but we are grown-ups, and we know that Tess of the D’Urbervilles is no snack for a restless teen.)

Some teachers have settled on assigning Harry Potter to the class. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Well --- here at last is your answer. A book that draws deep on the wells of traditional Americana. A book that celebrates the stream of promise that runs through our country and its people. A book that bounces on the springboard of the present, then spins through a two-and-a-half.

This book is my own Cloud of Expectation, and I heartily recommend it. Buy a copy for yourself, then rush to order four or five dozen for your classes.

A note here. One page in the book contains two Naughty Words. Two Very Naughty Words. I know these are not suitable for secondary-school students. Accordingly, I have prepared a second edition in which the page containing these two words is removed. Don’t worry, it works. Buy the Createspace edition for yourself, then the Xlibris edition for the class.

And leave some comment on my website. Thank you!
        Mike Westphal