Other People's Kids: A Novel

SOMETIMES, LIFE DOESN’T FOLLOW A LESSON PLAN...

After being attacked by a disgruntled parent in the parking lot of the private San Francisco Bay Area high school where she has taught English for the past twelve years, traumatized Chelsea Garden flees to her hometown of Imperial Flats in the Northern California foothills. She hasn’t been home in six years. When Chelsea meets beleaguered principal of Imperial Flats High School, Nora Delgado, the two realize they might have found each other at an essential crossroads. To complicate matters, her former classmate and complicated first love, Evan Dawkins, has also recently joined the faculty at IFHS to teach music. And he wasn’t expecting Chelsea to walk back into his life. Other People’s Kids follows three educators: one at the beginning of his career, one in the middle of hers, and one on her way out.

A story about teaching, hometowns, and risking change in midlife.

About Kim Culbertson

Kim Culbertson is the award-winning author of five YA novels with Sourcebooks and Scholastic as well as the author of the Heinemann book 100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing. She has been teaching high school since 1997 and somehow still adores teenagers but that’s probably because she spends as much time traveling and hiking in Tahoe as possible. Other People’s Kids is her first novel for adults.

Praise for Kim Culbertson's Other People’s Kids

“Written by a career educator, this story offers a rare glimpse into the complex lives of teachers, engaging readers in a middle-aged coming-home narrative and inviting them to reflect on the struggles faced by contemporary teachers nationwide. Culbertson’s prose is enthralling without being melodramatic and witty without being overly lighthearted. Every character is lovingly constructed with empathy and imbued with complexity, making them relatable and likable. Readers will get lost in the story and come away having learned a few of the hard lessons that our teachers were trying to impart all along.
A gripping, cozy drama about the careers and lives of teachers.“

—Kirkus Reviews

“In Other People’s Kids Kim Culbertson writes with empathy and humor, complexity and insight, about a cast of characters impossible not to fall for. But the greatest magic of this novel is the glow that growing to know them will cast over your own life, making you view those around you—and maybe even yourself—with a bit more generosity. This big-hearted, sweet-souled, tenderly funny book is just the balm we’ve all been wishing for.”

— Josh Weil, California Book Award winning author of The Age of Perpetual Light