Good Teacher

Author: Elaine Paige
Publisher: Oberon Books
Distributed in New Zealand by: Addenda Publishing Ltd.
RRP: NZ$69.99
GT Issue: 2010 T1

Anyone who loves musical theater, the combination of Rice and Webber or the beautiful, unforgettable voice of Elaine Paige, will enjoy reading and re-reading this lovely hard-cover book full of photos to supplement the text.

Not only does it cover with flashes of ‘memories’, eighteen productions she has been in – the successful and those others, but also has acknowledgment of the production credits for them listed at the end of the book. Elaine waltzes through her life story… never really going into great depth but covering a huge amount of ground, all accompanied by a superb collections of photographs from her ridiculously young looking childhood and teenage years through to the latter part of her career (the last musical featured was in 2007).

Elaine’s approach is up-beat and jolly even when affected by the trials of productions only lasting for 13 performances, or being cast yet again as a understudy – she makes it all look so easy. Blessed with a magnificent voice and a wonderful face for stage work the photographs certainly show the versatility of this consummate actress/chanteuse.

As you can probably guess I would recommend this book with its coverage and celebration of the 40 years that Elaine Paige has been in the theater. A superb addition to any personal collection or library section with a focus on musical theater.

This book started as two blogs by self admitted, (confessed is not a word to use here) fat people.
The origins of the book have influenced the feel.
So there are occasionally snippets where tense doesn’t fit or where it jumps from talking in the 3rd person to talking as one of the writers.
That said if you can get past these slight anomalies, if you are a ‘large, overweight, chubby, chunky, or just plain fat’ person – or trying to understand one – then you will find this book of interest.

Screw Inner Beauty covers a lot of ground… classed as a self help book it certainly gives permission for you to learn to live with your body and gives a large amount of evidence on the fallibility of diets… not necessarily in the short term but certainly when looked at in the longer term (over 3 years).
The evidence that most weight losers eventually put the majority if not all the weight back on is looked at and discussed.
The by-line on the cover ‘trash the diet and self-loathing and get on with your life’ certainly signals the premise of the book.

The book covers:

• Health
• Mental health
• Socializing
• Avoiding negativity
• Getting dressed
• the Media, and
• Getting your head on straight.

All the chapters have strategies, processes and solutions to make you feel proud to be who you are and not a self deprecating person who sometimes inadvertently makes other feel embarrassed.

This is not to say you will read this book and immediately feel at ease if you have a mindset that you are too big and must diet… however it is certainly a book to go back to for self affirmation.

The last chapter heading says it all; ‘Don’t Diet Anyway. They Still Don’t Work.’
It is a shame that this book and the blogs which inspired it have to be written.

Our often unrealistic expectations of what is a ‘right’ shape and weight and what is ‘wrong’ change as decades and fashion pass by.
We tend to forget to take into account genetics and that for some the current ‘ideal’ will forever be an impossibility.

As an inveterate dieter I enjoyed this book and will probably return to it at those times when I feel tempted to diet again!

Kate and Marianne and the discussions and arguments they put forward make sense.
A voice in the wilderness perhaps however the book (and blogs are being well noted in the USA where of course they originate.

If you have ever thought your teenager’s behaviour may best be explained by David Attenborough branching out from animals to adolescents, this may be the book for you.
David Bainbridge is a vet who teaches veterinary anatomy at Cambridge University, and in this book he aims to use his biological knowledge to convince us that being a teenager is a positive and understandable experience.
The book covers the gamut of teenage issues, like many others, but does it in the “popular science” genre.

It was possibly this lack of attempt to discuss broader social, cultural and gender issues which teenagers have to deal with that made it less successful with me.
Of course if I’d paid more attention to the title, (A Natural History) I may have been more forgiving.
While taking his point that many aspects of teenage development can be explained by biology, his dismissal of cultural influences makes the book less than convincing – there was no evidence that the teenage changes he discusses are international, as he writes from a very white and western perspective.
One example is there was no mention of the impact of technology on teenagers lives, surely a huge omission.

There was a definite clash in the writer’s voice over the course of the book.
There are clear and concise scientific explanations of everything from why teenagers are better than everyone else, why all the sleep risk and anger, to whether teenage drug use is really a bad thing.
For readers reasonably versed in science, these will be interesting and may really make you see teenagers in a different light – beholden to their genetic makeup rather than sullen and irritating! I, however, struggled with many of these passages, as it is very difficult to keep the easy read style Bainbridge is aiming at up without patronising readers with better knowledge of biology.
And when he gets away from the straight science, his slightly twee informal voice gets extremely grating, as if he isn’t sure of his audience.

While the book says it is for anyone, whether they are a teenager at the moment, know one or have been one, the real audience for this will be parents and teachers fairly well versed in science. My 14 year old was inspired by the great cover and snappy blurb, but when it came to help with the review said “It was sooooo boring. He thinks he’s really funny.
And he isn’t.” While this is a bit harsh, I have to go along with it a bit.
I don’t know if finding out that my son’s brain is slowly replacing the tegmentum-accumbens rewardseeking system with a tegmental-accumbens-prefrontal pathway that allows emotions to be more controlled by intellect will make our house any calmer, but I’ll try and keep it in mind.

Recommended for parents and teachers who would like a relatively easy explanation of the biology of the teenage years.

Who doesn’t know, or is perhaps, one of those people who suffer agonies when exams are looming?

For some reason some brains are hard wired to make exams even more of a mountain than they already are, and the fear of exams can be debilitating to the advancement of students.

Su Dorland is a registered psychologist living in Australia, formerly from the United Kingdom.
She has worked as a lecturer, tutor and counsellor and has in ideal background and undestanding to write this novel book.

Su looks at exams and the anxiety they cause, not only in the generic sense but also as they may affect the reader as an individual.
Once that is identified in this highly readable book the reader moves onto facing the question, “How do I get rid of my exam anxiety?”

Su offers strategies and solutions for the reader to work through depending on what affects them and how they react.
She looks at procrastination and why we use it, and better still how to stop procrastinating and face up to what needs to be achieved.

She offers hints for

• students who are working – or have other commitments
• off-campus students
• mature age students
• International students
• Emigrants – referring especially those in Australia who come from migrant families

The last section of the book is the final advice for the exam attendee… it offers strategies to work through before the exam to remain calm and focused.

Best of all Su’s book comes complete with a cd to help the whole process.

This book is a must for any parent with children who find the examination process difficult, or if you are returning to study, or even if you have employment related tests which engender some form of anxiety.

It is easy to read, logical and thoughtful in its approach.

A great gift also for those heading into the exam arena of study, well worth the investment.

This delightful book is a must for any kiwi home.
Richard Wolfe has amassed a wonderful collection of memories loosely grouped into themes, which in themselves evoke memories…
Glad rags, at the chalkface and Hard yakker.
Add on Fair dinkum fun, number-eight wire and Cow cockies and you will get the drift!
Introducing this book and its contents will spark conversation in any group over 40 who remember the majority of elements introduced while those who are younger could well use it at a translation tool in discussions with parents and grandparents while also realising that it holds a large chunk of our social history in an easily digested and quirky form.

Presented in a ‘dip in’ fashion the themes are great though the subjects within those themes are not alphabetically listed which could be a little frustrating to some.
Me? I loved it from start to finish…
Ches and Dale, the Art Union, a photo of littlies sitting drinking the ubiquitous school milk and the front of one of the early school journals… when I showed it to some colleagues it managed to engender exclamations on every page… a real winner.

Every school should have this book (it doesn’t take up much room!) in fact I think it should be in every room, as a resource for memories of days gone by … perhaps today’s classes could guess what would be in a similar book in the future?