For review: The Noisy Classroom

Debut author Angela Shanté teamed up with illustrator Alison Hawkins and created The Noisy Classroom to help soothe childhood anxiety associated with school and change. The book is about an African American girl entering third grade. When she finds out she is going to be in the raucous and disorderly classroom with Ms. Johnson, she wants to run away. 

Summer flies by and the little girl perseveres, soon finding herself cautiously entering the nontraditional classroom on the first day of school. Her worries slowly fade as she discovers “The Noisy Classroom” is not what it appears to be from the outside. The children play ball to learn math, write stories from an ant’s point of view, and sing, which even makes the end-of-day cleaning up fun. Ms. Johnson's is a loving classroom, even though it may seem "odd" and outside of what the little girl considers "the norm."

Angela taught children for ten years and wanted to highlight the nontraditional classroom in a positive and inspiring way. “This classroom was much like my classroom” she says. “I believed in having fun, playing games, moving around, dancing, and enjoying the education experience [for the students and myself]. My classroom was dubbed ‘The Noisy Classroom’ because of it. I’ve found students can work, they can learn, they can be successful… and they can do so in a nontraditional way.”

We hope you enjoy this sweet story of discovery as much as we do!

Angela is writer, poet, editor, and educator, with a Masters in Elementary Education and an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught elementary school for ten years. In her own classroom, she believes in having fun, playing games, moving around, dancing, and enjoying the education experience, even if it occasionally gets loud. Angela lives Los Angeles, California.

Alison is an illustrator and designer with a background in art history and anthropology. She loves to incorporate bold lettering and bright colors into her artwork, which has been published by American Greetings. Alison lives in Durham, North Carolina.
 

5/5/20, 9781513262925, Hardcover $16.99, Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3, 32 pages, 10 x 8, distributed by Ingram Publisher Services

More: https://www.westmarginpress.com/book-details/9781513262925/the-noisy-classroom/