Everyone seemed so overwhelmingly friendly and theatmosphere was very different from the school systemsin New York City and Commack, Long Islandwhere I had previously taught.After thirty-four years as a social studies teacher, Richard Charles faces bereavement stoically and finds a remedy in work. His experience of the Arizona schools system as a guest teacher (and technophobe) is varied to say the least. Spitballs, locker room horseplay, jinxed VCRs and Chasidic protests at the use of the plus sign (a cross, no less) are just some of the hazards along the way, and one senses the genial author hears his late wife's words more than once: "Anger management, Richard!" Yet, he is rewarded with a magic thank you - "You're my best teacher ever" - and this surely makes the long days and uncertainties of being a teacher on call worth all the effort. Here, Richard Charles brings it all brilliantly to life in his highly enjoyable Journals, a book to treasure for those in or outside the education system.