Back to Forest High Unknown - 2015

Bob Boone started teaching in 1964. He has taught in Staten Island, Germany, Highland Park, and Chicago. In 1991, he founded Young Chicago Authors to provide opportunities for young writers from the city. He has written several textbooks, a teaching memoir, and a sports biography. Along with coauthoring Write Through Chicago, he and Mark Henry Larson have written two other creative writing books, Moe's Cafe and Joan's Junk Shop. Forest High is his first work of fiction, and Back to Forest High is his second. He lives in Glencoe, Illinois, with his wife Sue. He has three children and five grandchildren. Milos Stehlik, Critic for Worldview on WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio: "The stories are wonderful and beautifully written, with insights into the interior of a parallel, minimalist universe of the everyday. What makes these stories ultimately so arresting is how they capture the quiet, unspoken fears, the normalcy of unfinished relationships, and the inner strength it takes to face each day. The quietness of the stories belies their energy and the resilience of the characters which becomes a moving celebration of the human spirit." Eric Lutz, Newcity Lit: "Bob Boone might be Chicago's most famous teacher. Since the 1960s he's been educating youth of Chicago and its suburbs, as well as those in New York and Germany. In 1991, he founded the terrific Young Chicago Authors program, a forum for creative writing and performance among teens, earning him an invite to the White House by Michelle Obama, and a Chicagoan of the Year nod by Chicago magazine in 2002. "While continuing to teach, Mr. Boone has also found time to pen...a Winesburg, Ohio-esque cycle of...three-dimensional portraits of teachers and students, their twining fates, bound in solidly constructed, realist narratives-ones that sparkle with the feeling of lived experience." KIRKUS REVIEWS
www.kirkusreviews.com
"...Boone's...characters reveal questionable attitudes in a small amount of space or, more often, withhold uncomfortable truths from themselves and others. These layered, often humorous classroom insights are buoyed by the author's lean, clear writing style. The author will find an eager audience among readers who work in the profession, but these stories are genuinely accessible for any student who has ever wondered what's happening on the other side of the desk."