The bestseller now available as a paperback! Children, parents, teachers—everyone knows it: school troubles. In a successful blend of childhood memories and teaching experiences, Daniel Pennac shares his creative approach to dealing with students and their issues. An unusual, indispensable book about school today. He was once a poor student, one of those who sit frozen and with a dull mind in front of a blank page or respond to questions with clownish antics. Nevertheless, Daniel Pennac eventually graduates from high school and becomes a teacher. But he becomes a teacher who has never forgotten those wounds and humiliations and who knows what it means to be a failure. And what it means for that failure to find caring teachers who understand and can help break down mental barriers. He recounts his own school days and the lessons he later experienced as a teacher.