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Oct 09, 2011

Sheree rated it:

4.5 stars

A thoroughly gripping novel. Rebecca Coleman's writing style is a "no-holds barred" approach; honest, raw, and intense, the content invoked such a whirlpool of emotions, I was unable to put the book down but came away feeling emotionally drained. It's a compelling combination; a bit like watching a car crash ... horrifying and nauseating but you just can't turn away.

It's not like this is unprecedented behaviour, even when I was in high school (many yea More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Lydia rated it:

Rebecca Coleman is a skilled craftswoman with an awkward challenge: to write a book about an adult woman and an underage boy that is neither a shocking expose or a titillating tale. One potential danger in writing about this topic would be to produce a book that shocks me as a reader, and then guides me to resolution by helping me pass judgment on the characters. A cautionary tale. In reading it, I could clutch my pearls, tut-tut, and then nod firmly as the character gets what's coming to her. O More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Mary rated it:

My Opinion:
Amazing! This book is just that. It is truly hard to describe how I feel about this book. The book looks through the eyes of Judy and her past. She is a disturbed woman but we don’t learn that until much later in the book,so at first she reminds you of everyone’s mom. The problem is,she isn’t. This book is bizarre and you at first hate it,until you realize that you are loving how much you hate it. It’s sick and twisted and just plain wrong,yet you can’t stop reading it. You are s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Laurel rated it:

This is a book that begs a discussion. It's challenging, not comfortable (particularly for some since the author tackles the taboo topic of sex between an adult and a child). There are quite a few layers to this story and Coleman's use of Steiner's Waldorf educational method surprisingly holds them all in place quite well. I liked the flashbacks to an earlier time in Germany and the references to the book of moral lessons and Struwwelpeter. They coincided well with the festivals and some of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Alisha rated it:

So, usually I love any book that is psychologically thrilling and I never shy away from reading about a disturbing subject. However, for some strange reason, I was a bit put off while reading The Kingdom of Childhood. Yes, while reading the synopsis of the book, I did realize that the subject matter would include a woman who was having an affair with a teenager. I just didn't realize it would affect me the way it did. I was thoroughly squicked out. Seriously, this book was icky and I someti More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Judy McFarland’s life is a mess. Her marriage is crumbling, her school is going bankrupt, her best friend just died. She’s started to think about escape — her youngest son will be graduating soon and then she could leave, get a divorce, do whatever she wanted. Unfortunately, she doesn’t wait until after graduation. In Rebecca Coleman’s The Kingdom of Childhood, she makes some terrible choices that devastate the people around her.

You really want to feel sorry for Judy. The school she ha More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Pamela rated it:

Judy is a kindergarten teacher in her forties, watching her family unravel and feeling powerless to stop it. Zach is sixteen and struggling to come to terms with his mother’s affair. The miss-matched pair are thrown together whilst organising a fundraising for their failing private school. At first it is dangerous and intoxicating…Judy feeling alive once again, Zach getting his first tastes of pleasure. But their romance quickly takes a dark edge, an emotionally damaging and life-altering relati More...

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Oct 18, 2011

Ciara rated it:

this book...i don't even know where to begin. i guess with the plot: judy is a 40-something kindergarten teacher in a waldorf school in maryland. she has two older children. her daughter is away at college & busy rejecting the waldorf values she'd had been instilled with as a child by becoming a crazy right-wing baptist. her son is finishing up his senior year at the waldorf school & rebels by being a bit of a bro-dude & spending all his time with his girlfriend. judy's husband, russ, is in this More...

3 comments like

Oct 17, 2011

Sue rated it:

Sexual obsession and its destructive power drive Coleman’s gripping debut novel.

Judy MacFarland is a kindergarten teacher at the failing Sylvania Waldorf School, a private K-12 school in Maryland. Her husband, Russ, seems to have forgotten that he has a family since he began his doctoral dissertation. Her son, Scott, is a popular senior at the Waldorf School who spends most of his time with his friends, and her daughter Maggie is away at college. Judy is a very lonely woman. Throw i More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Erica rated it:

I received an ARC of this book and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It tells the story of Judy McFarland, a middle-aged Waldorf school teacher, and the affair she enters into with sixteen-year old Zach Patterson. The narrative shifts back and forth between Judy and Zach, and also from past to present, slowly revealing the damaging events that occurred in Judy's past that have led her to where she is now.

The writing is superb on every level. It is quite clearly the work of someone More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Bookworm rated it:

The Kingdom of Childhood is a beautifully written novel that had me drawn in from the start. This novel swept me in, yet made me uncomfortable with its subject matter. It was kind of like witnessing a car wreck, you don't want to look, but you can't help but stare in shock.

Judy McFarland is a middle aged wife and mother. Judy's husband Russ has changed since they were first married. He is a professor obsessed with his work, Judy is a kindergarten teacher at a private school. Their c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Deborah rated it:

At the local Waldorf School Kindergarten teacher Judy McFarland feels her life slipping away as her husband Russ works continuously on his dissertation and their son Scott becomes more involved with his friends in his teen years. Judy finds the only spark of interest in her life now is in the newest student of the Waldorf School a classmate of her son,the transplanted 16 year old Zach Patterson who reminds her of a childhood friend she was much comforted by. But perhaps Judy’s recent loss of h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2011

Laura rated it:

I received an advance copy of this book, and when I first learned what it was about, I was a bit leery. Such potentially explosive and controversial subject matter would have to be handled with great care and skill to avoid being simply tawdry and uncomfortable.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I was hooked. Once I got about 30 pages in, I found myself so drawn in by the characters that I simply could not put the book down. The plot moves along so well -- it's a strange combinat More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2011

Carly rated it:

A compulsively readable novel about a deeply disturbed woman. Set in 1998, during the Clinton impeachment scandal, Judy McFarland is a middle-aged kindergarten teacher at a Waldorf school in Maryland. Judy is unhappy in her marriage (she is planning on leaving her husband when her son leaves for college in a year) and suppressing her emotions about the death of her best friend and fellow teacher. She meets Zach Patterson, a 16 year old friend of her son, who has recently enrolled at the Waldorf More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

Judy McFarland is a long-time teacher at the Waldorf school in Sylvania, Maryland, but lately her life has been pretty unhappy. Her husband doesn't have time for her, her children are distant and detached, and her closest friend and confidante recently passed away. So despite knowing that its wrong, when the opportunity to hook up with one of the older students at the school arises, she takes it. Zach is sixteen, with one foot firmly in adulthood and the other clinging to his youth. Being with J More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Jodi rated it:

Picked this book up after a quick glance because I saw it was compared to Jodi Piccoult's book. It was a quick, easy to read book with a lot of twists but I did NOT like the subject matter. Mainly, it is about a 40ish kindergarten teacher who falls in love with a 16 year old boy who begins to assist her to earn his community service hours. I don't care who makes the first move or how it happened, IT IS WRONG! An adult needs to be an adult (especially when one is much older) and know right fr More...

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Oct 14, 2011

Samantha rated it:

4.5 Stars

I feel the need to start off by admitting that I was extremely leery of this book simply because of the fact that its first award was given by Amazon. The fact that it’s also a starred review from the Library Journal was not helpful either. I am the type of person who generally hates everything the critics love.

So here’s the deal. I love this book. And not because it’s just oh so fabulously written that it needs to win every award known to man. It’s because I no More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Leah rated it:

I wanted to like this book,but I didn't. The plot was interesting. It was about a woman in her 40s (Judy) in the 90s when the Clinton scandal was just breaking. The woman teachers kindergarten is a crunchy earthy sort of hippy-ish school but in secret doesn't really believe in the lifestyle. She has two older children and a husband who is addicted to pills and is writing his dissertation and has just about forgotten he even has a wife. The story brings in elements of fables, which was very inter More...

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Oct 03, 2011

April rated it:

Originally reviewed here

The Kingdom Of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman is one of those books with a subject that makes your skin crawl, but is a train wrecking told so spellbindingly that it’s impossible to set down.

Judy McFarland is a kindergarten teacher at Waldorf, a Steiner-philosophy based school, which centers on protecting innocence, no sharp corners, no consumerism, and no delicious food, instead they eat organic crap. Anyways Judy is having a midlife crisis. Her hus More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2011

Danielle rated it:

This story just shows that nothing that is morally or ethically wrong can ever survive or be covered up.

At times it was hard to remember that you're not actually 'supposed' to root for Judy and Zach as a couple so I had to be on my guard that this wasn't actually romantic in the 'normal' sense. I had to force myself to acknowledge that this woman isn't in her teens, or even in her twenties. She's in her forties and that is what makes it so....disturbing isn't the right word. Surprisin More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Samantha rated it:

I received an ARC for The Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman, and though I agreed to read and review, I was a little worried about what my reaction would be. I do like to explore beyond the chick lit genre, and this one is definitely way out that realm. The main character is Judy McFarland, a typical suburban mom whose profession is a kindergarten teacher. She has one son, a senior named Scott, and a husband that is manic over his doctoral dissertation. Judy’s marriage has already begun to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 24, 2011

Jesse rated it:

This book was, by turns, beautifully written and appropriately off-putting. In her debut novel, Coleman tackles a tough, taboo subject: statutory rape. But it is statutory rape between a 40-something kindergarten teacher and a willing 16-year-old student. And wow, does Coleman do a fantastic job at handling this topic--her writing is emotional, raw, and utterly captivating. I read somewhere that reading this book is like watching a car-crash: horrifying, but one cannot seem to look away. It is e More...

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Oct 19, 2011

Moonlight rated it:

The focus of the story is on the life of Judy McFarland, a middle-aged kindergarten teacher at a private school. Her marriage is falling apart as her husband Russ places his importance on work, and treats Judy as though she isn’t even there. The added pressure of needing to find ways to raise money for Waldorf before it gets shut down sends Judy spiraling downwards. Feeling as though she is all alone, Judy instantly enjoys receiving attention from a teenage student named Zach Patterson. As this More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Michael rated it:

This turned out to be a much different book than I had anticipated. I had heard it was bout a teacher who worked at the Waldorf School who was having a romantic affair. Since my grand daughter went to a Waldorf school and I was familiar with its methods and New Age philosophy, I thought it would be interesting.
The book did have lots of detail related to the school that I had seen fisthand, like the spiral light ceremony and candle lighting. But I wasn't expecting the torrid, erotic affair b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

scmorgan rated it:

Judy McFarland is at a tipping point. Her marriage with husband, Russ, is crumbling, one child is already out of the nest and another is due to leave soon, her school is on financial skids, and a close friend has died. This pressure cooker is about to shatter her defense mechanisms, allowing her enter into a self-destructive relationship with a young boy, Zach, a friend of her teenaged son and a student at the Waldorf school where she teaches.

Zach is not without fault in the relatio More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Mary (BookHounds) rated it:

Judy McFarland had a difficult childhood and her perceptions of appropriate relations has been skewed a bit by the past. She initiates an affair with a sixteen year old Zach, who is the same age as her own son, Scott. The story is told by flashbacks of her childhood, her point of view and that of Zach's. The story combines elements of Mary Kay Latourneau's story, a decidedly different school atmosphere of the Waldorf movement and weaves in the current affairs of the Clinton - Lewinsky scandal More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2011

Laurel-Rain rated it:

Judy McFarland has believed in the beauty of fairytales since her long-ago childhood in Germany, when books and images instilled in her an existence wrought with beauty and danger.

So it is not surprising that she would find herself teaching kindergarten in a special kind of school based on the principles of Rudolph Steiner. In this excerpt, we see a glimpse of the backdrop for this story:

"The passion I felt for the stories, the methods, the esoteric philosophies of R More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

Wow. This book was a tough one for me, but I cannot give it less than it is due. To say that I enjoyed it would be incorrect, but the writing was beautiful. In fact, it was the beautiful writing, so tactile and sensory, that made the sex scenes between Judy and Zach so uncomfortable to read. However, this was clearly the intent, therefore the author was successful. I got swept up in the downward spiral of the characters, knowing no happy ending was in sight. I was so fascinated by the concep More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

Gioia rated it:

Judy is a 40 year old kindergardener teacher.. Zach is a sixteen year old student. they happened to start a relationship that at my opinion, does not have much sense or meaning besides pure sex/lust...and obviously, this relationship is totally wrong, considering Judy not only is married, and she is doing a sixteen year old, but her own son is eighteen! yuck..
Indeed, Rebecca Coleman is a really skilled writer, but the story lacked a lot of things.
I enjoyed the book, because of Coleman More...

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Jan 29, 2012

Kelli rated it:

To be fair if I could give away half stars I would for this book It's a solid 2.5 lost somewhere in the land of just ok and I liked it. I have a lot to say about this book but everytime I try my mouth hangs open and no words ever seem to form. This is going to be one poor review for I don't want to give anything away and maybe I'm still a little shell shocked from finishing it. My advice is read it. Read it because on a number of occasions I felt conflicted and steadfast in my convictions even More...

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