The Role of a Teacher

Teachers play an important role in the lives of students and sometimes have long-term impacts that extend well past the subjects they are teaching. That is the case with Mrs. Granger and her student Nick Allen in this novel. The majority of these events take place when Nick is in fifth grade and Mrs. Granger is his language teacher. Up until now, Nick has sometimes manipulated teachers to waste class time and even avoid homework assignments. He quickly discovers he has met his match with Mrs. Granger and a decade later he discovers that she chose to play a role in the events that took place during that year in order to help Nick understand that he has the power to change his world.

As a fourth grader, Nick was skilled at asking teachers distracting questions that could waste long stretches of...