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Teach Me

by R.A. Nelson

3.50 · rating details · 1,092 ratings · 180 reviews

Teach Me invites readers inside an experience that fascinates everyone. An affair between a teacher and student, and gives an up-close-and-personal answer to the question: How does this happen?

The hardcover edition of Teach Me was a Booksense Fall 2006 Kids Pick, a TeenReads.com Best Book of 2005, and a selection for the 2006 NYPL Books for the Teen Age.

Paperback, 272 pages

Published March 22nd 2007 by Razorbill

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Student-Teacher Affair Novels

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Apr 03, 2009

Danielle Harlow rated it

Maybe I am just too old-- but I really didn't like this book at all. I force myself to read all the way to the end of any book I start, because I feel like you really never know.. but at the end of this book-- I just wished I had a time machine to go back before I bought it. I think that, yes, obviously when you write a book, it is going to reflect your personally somewhat, but while I was reading this book- I couldn't help but feeling like the author wanted to include ALL her interests- to an e...more

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Oct 18, 2011

Hana❦Joy rated it

Shelves: terrible, ridiculously-sexy-guys, gave-up-on, ★★, fuck-this-shit

I got about 200 pages in and I could not do it, this was fucking terrible! Though I did like the first 80 pages and the whole lovey dovey parts, those where pretty sweet. And i'm sure if Alicia didn't make an entrance Nine and Mr.Mann might have actually stayed together after she graduated. Stupid, stupid, Alicia....
Parting thoughts:

Caroline is fucking insane
Mr. Mann is a douche, but a sexy douche.

EDIT:

And I mean it, he is one sexy douche. ...more

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Jul 11, 2011

Melissa rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Last night when I was finished...I thought maybe 2 or 3 stars, but the more it sits with me, the more I find myself thinking about it. All I do know is that the writers words are the bulk of this 4 stars. The heartbreak and complete unraveling of Nine made me ache. Did I think a seventeen year old would have much of this dialogue with themselves? No, I don't. However, Nine is more articulate, more introspective than most seventeen year olds. Plus her feelings of first love, which is actually mo...more Last night when I was finished...I thought maybe 2 or 3 stars, but the more it sits with me, the more I find myself thinking about it. All I do know is that the writers words are the bulk of this 4 stars. The heartbreak and complete unraveling of Nine made me ache. Did I think a seventeen year old would have much of this dialogue with themselves? No, I don't. However, Nine is more articulate, more introspective than most seventeen year olds. Plus her feelings of first love, which is actually more of first obsession, and then first heartbreak are palpable in such a devastating way you can't help but think that the writing is brilliant.

I don't condone a relationship between a teacher and student. I'm not going to debate the ethics of teacher getting into a relationship with an almost 18 year old student. It was an abuse of power no matter which way you paint it, but unlike a lot of stories that sensationalize such relationships, this book was different. Even in the media when a story comes out about a student teacher affair, it's often painted as sexual fling between an innocent teen and irresponsible adult. However, the relationship between Nine and Mr. Mann goes far beyond a teacher-student fling. There is mutual interests, mutual consideration and the way these characters are written, the relationship isn't sensationalized in the least. I believe they truly loved each other. I think he meant his words to her and when the time came for him to make a choice, he choose what he felt was 'best' for all involved. Could he have been lying and screwing around the whole time? Of course, But I don't think that was the case. I truly felt that Mr.Mann hated himself for what was happening and for that, I think he will live with regret for the rest of his life.

My real issues lie with Nine's detached parents who seem to have little idea of who their daughter is and just how much trouble she is. She unravels before their very eyes and....nothing. Mr. Mann learns/see's first hand her breakdown and while there are half-hearted attempts to help, it wasn't enough for this devastated girl. I just don't know if so many people could turn a blind eye when this girl is literally screaming for help. It seemed unrealistic to me.

It's hard for me to think this is a YA book. The emotions attached to it are even hard for me as an adult to digest. I do know this: I remember my first heartbreak and it was awful. However...you learn and grow from it and by the time you're an adult, you are better emotionally ready to deal with the blows. Nine never had that chance. As much as we says 'age doesn't matter,' in this case it truly did. She was not ready to be in an adult relationship when the guy turns out to be not who she thought he was. I don't know...it was all so very sad, but the saving grace was...I think Nine will be fine.

So. Yeah. Still processing. I think it's a thought provoking read, balancing what you think is 'right' and 'wrong' and ultimately, it was so painfully beautifully, I can't help but want others to read it. My heart still aches a day later.

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Nov 08, 2009

Sherrybaby rated it

i picked this book up again! &+ was seriously mad at myself for taking so long to read it. This book has the perfect amount of love, lost, breakdown, survival, and friendship.

Poor nine falls head over heels for a new male teacher.
teacher, starts flirting with nine, until there in a deep passionate
love affair. But when nine turns eighteen things take an awful turn,
mr. man doesnt want to be in a relationship with her anymore!
even worse he thinks they shouldnt ...more

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Mar 15, 2008

priscilla rated it

Shelves: ya

Novels about teacher/student affairs always both repulse & intrigue me, especially YA novels. The first one I read was Gone by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, about a post-graduation summer fling between a male senior and his pretty, young, former teacher. The story was crushingly sad & overtly sexual, & it had an overall half-baked feeling to it, unable to compensate for such a disturbing & depressing story with stellar writing.
Teach Me reverses the genders & sets the story during the school ye...more

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Sep 05, 2008

Susan rated it

Recommends it for: people interested in student-teacher relationships

Shelves: 2008read, youngadult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm sorry, I try to avoid saying it when I can, but this book was terrible. Completely disappointing because at the beginning I thought it had a lot of potential, but it was completely rushed and unbelievable and at the end, completely crazy.

Points of interest:
1. The writing style from the beginning was odd. It felt very unfinished and even frantic, when what we needed was some sort of clarity. I'm not sure it was smart to start in the middle of the affair and not explain an...moreI'm sorry, I try to avoid saying it when I can, but this book was terrible. Completely disappointing because at the beginning I thought it had a lot of potential, but it was completely rushed and unbelievable and at the end, completely crazy.

Points of interest:
1. The writing style from the beginning was odd. It felt very unfinished and even frantic, when what we needed was some sort of clarity. I'm not sure it was smart to start in the middle of the affair and not explain anything until later.
2. I did not like that his name was Mr. Mann. I'm not sure what she was trying to say about men with that name. I also thought Carolina's nickname, Nine, was more distracting than helpful to understanding her character. Though I did like how she felt like she was just a number to him.
3. Why was the whole thing with Alicia treated like such a mystery and almost like it was something horribly bizarre? I pretty much figured she was pregnant but the way they were going on about it I thought there must be something else.
4. The last half of the book is completely absurd. I almost thought maybe it was supposed to be satire except we really had no warning of that. I thought it was supposed to be serious and clearly the publisher thought that too (did they even read this before they decided to publish it?).
5. The paintball-pistol-OMG-shocker! scene. Seriously, WTF? That was cheap. I don't mind that Carolina was trying to shock the people at the poetry reading, but the fact that Nelson was clearly trying to shock the reader? That was just bad.
6. Carolina was completely off her rocker. Now, I don't have a problem with crazy characters; in fact, I like them. But her insanity seemed to come from nowhere. And sometimes she really acted 12 instead of 17/18.
7. I didn't believe her relationship with Mr. Mann either, especially at the beginning. The pacing was way off. Even if "in real life" it was that fast, we need to believe that. I didn't. I kept wondering why they were together, and all Mr. Mann kept saying was, "I've never done this before, but you're just so different!!!" Which told me nothing. Also the details were kind of fuzzy at the beginning. I couldn't really tell if they were sleeping together or not, but then on her 18th birthday it was clearly their first time together and from what I understood of Carolina she was a virgin before but they didn't linger in that moment at all, and Nelson treated it like it was no big deal. This was handled even worse here than in How It's Done.
8. I don't even remember the ending anymore but I think it was abrupt.
9. I did kind of like Schuyler. He was the best part. I think some of his scenes near the end with Carolina were bravely written and emotionally honest, and I like that. But at the same time they didn't completely work in the context of the story in my opinion.
10. The person who designed the book did not give enough thought to the subheadings. The font was too light and hard to read, and because they were right-justified I just ignored them and never read them.

Grade: C-

I just want to comment that I am not one of those people who thinks student-teacher relationships are "wrong" or "disturbing." That is unless the student is a minor (obviously) or if the student is, at that time, in the teacher's class (mostly because it's unfair to those students who are not sleeping with the teacher). I just wish someone would write a straight-up serious story with such a relationship that isn't borderline ridiculous. I love Blue Angel, but that one is clearly a satire and the rest have been either unbelievable or presented as a "message" story, in my opinion.
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Mar 06, 2009

Heyrebekah Alm rated it

Shelves: fiction

This will teach me to buy books at random from the bargain bin. Oh well, at least it was a quick read. I'm not the target audience anyway, and maybe I would have loved it when I was in high school. The narrator does not sound like a teenager to me at all. But yet, the book does seem to have been written by a teenager.

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Sep 05, 2007

Leisha senko rated it

this book was amazing. i read it while on vacation. i picked it up in a tiny book store in collingwood by mistake. at first i thought it would be sleezy or really have no plot but i found that it was full of emotion and twists that you don't see coming. i love how the author didn't make the teacher having the affair into a sleazy, villianous type. the book had many layers to it and showed the complexities and ability for even the smartest student and most noble teacher to fall into this sort of ...more

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Feb 02, 2012

Diamond rated it

Shelves: kindle

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Teach Me in a nutshell was about a girl named Carolina aka Nine who fell in love with her mysterious and attractive teacher, Mr. Mann. They both come to realize that they understand each other in a way that no one else can. Except maybe Nine's best friend Schuyler. Nine isolates herself from him because she feels like he won't understand and she's right. He doesn't like Mr. Mann as it is but if he found out that they were sleeping together then he'd probably tell the authorities. When Mr. Mann t...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Niki rated it

In modern day America, the idea of romances between teacher & student are becoming more & more common. "Teach Me" by RA Nelson is a novel full of love, lust, beauty & disaster. Carolina "Nine" Livingston, a high school senior with expectations bigger than the small city in Alabama she resides in, falls head over heels for her new English teacher, Mr. Richard Mann. Mr. Mann is a genuine individual that Nine is undeniably attracted to for his looks, unique brand of humor, & ...more

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Feb 17, 2009

Lynleigh added it

Does the teacher also fall in love with the student?
Mr. Mann does indeed fall for Carolina. You can see as their relationship grows he seems more and more intrigued by her.

Does Carolina believe her and Mr. Mann are meant to be? Yes she believes they are meant to be because of her reactions throughout the relationship. She is always beseeching him to just be with her and forget life in general besides them together.

Who truly loves and cares for Carolina as more th...more

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Lydia "Why does Mr. Mann choose in the end to definetely move on? He realizes what he has done is completely wrong. As his girlfriend comes back into h...more
May 31, 2011 06:45am

Lydia Besides, I don't think there was anything wrong with this relationship and I don't see what harm he was doing by being with her. I think it could have...more
May 31, 2011 06:49am

Lydia Ah no, sorry! I understand that the relationship could have caused Mr. Mann a lot of trouble, and Nine too. But I think if they had waited until Nine ...more
May 31, 2011 07:15am

Dec 28, 2008

Heather rated it

Wow. What can I say. We've all had our crushes on teachers, but it was interesting to see it be reciprocated. Though every part of me was saying, "This is weird," or "this is so wrong," I could not help but want everything to work out ok for Mr. Mann and Nine.
It was hard to get a grasp of what Nine looked like and I was frustrated because I couldn't mentally connect to someone like her, but then I realized that we're in her head. We aren't supposed to know what she loo...more

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Jan 01, 2012

Barky rated it

Shelves: teacher-student-affairs, teachers, high-school, relationship-problems, relationships, first-love, young-adult-fiction, disturbing, insanity, borrowed-from-the-library, realistic, revenge

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Nine (Carolina) has never bothered herself with high school boys. She’s too smart, she’s too individual, and she’s too picky. None of them has ever sparked any kind of interest in her. No one in her high school has – until she meets the new poetry teacher, Mr. Mann. He’s brilliant, he admires her intelligence and her wit, and she develops an intense crush on him. It seems her every wish is going to be fulfilled when she learns that he shares her feelings. They begin meeting secretly so the...moreNine (Carolina) has never bothered herself with high school boys. She’s too smart, she’s too individual, and she’s too picky. None of them has ever sparked any kind of interest in her. No one in her high school has – until she meets the new poetry teacher, Mr. Mann. He’s brilliant, he admires her intelligence and her wit, and she develops an intense crush on him. It seems her every wish is going to be fulfilled when she learns that he shares her feelings. They begin meeting secretly so they can talk, and kiss, and make love away from prying eyes. Carolina, who had so many plans for herself after high school, finds herself writing Mr. Mann into all of these plans. He seems happy to be a part of her life. And then, he cuts her off without any explanation, saying that they can’t be together any more. And then she sees his wedding announcement in the paper, and starts plotting her revenge. What Richard Mann can’t seem to understand is Nine’s insatiable desire to figure out why he’s dropped her. If he’d just clear up the mystery, she’d be able to move on.

I think most people experience some kind of insanity when they go through a bad breakup. Most of us will not take it to the extremes that Nine does – we aren’t going to stalk, and humiliate, break into anyone’s apartment, or pretend to shoot our exes. But we may recognize her feelings – hurt, frustration – and her desire to do something, anything to fix it.

The topic is kind of hands-off – an underage girl fornicating (!!) with an older man (Mr. Mann is supposedly in his early thirties) who is her teacher. There’s a lot of taboo there. But their relationship, however forbidden, seems to be a union of equals. Emotionally and intellectually Carolina and Richard Mann seem well-matched. He’s lived longer, but he’s still somewhat adolescent; she’s an actual adolescent, but she’s much more grounded and self-assured. People may be reluctant to believe that such a thing can exist. This is not a story where things get all creepy and dark because one party is forcing the other party into doing something s/he feels is wrong. It does get weird because Carolina is so upset and hurt when Mr. Mann calls it off. A fascinating read for older teens who like a bit of the crazy mixed in with their romances.(less)

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Nov 14, 2011

Chelsea rated it

I struggled with how to rate this book because it was simultaneously a good, interesting read, and a bizarre, over-the-top one. The narrator, Nine (Carolina) is a teenage girl that begins having an affair with her English teacher, Mr. Mann. At first, I loved Carolina's voice and the way she thought-- she acted much more mature than her peers, and her mind seemed very open and emotional. The author progresses the two characters' relationship in a way that makes the readers empathize with Nine and...more

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Jan 18, 2011

Leah rated it

From the start, TEACH ME enraptured me with its evocative language. R.A. Nelson has a poetic sensibility, effortlessly drawing metaphors from astrophysics in spare, luminous prose. There's something of the spirit of Emily Dickinson in Nelson's writing, which is fitting, as Dickinson's work figures prominently in the book. Even the chapter titles read like poetry. One chapter in particular stands out: titled "Heat Death of the Universe," it contains a single devastating sentence.

...moreFrom the start, TEACH ME enraptured me with its evocative language. R.A. Nelson has a poetic sensibility, effortlessly drawing metaphors from astrophysics in spare, luminous prose. There's something of the spirit of Emily Dickinson in Nelson's writing, which is fitting, as Dickinson's work figures prominently in the book. Even the chapter titles read like poetry. One chapter in particular stands out: titled "Heat Death of the Universe," it contains a single devastating sentence.

The plot is straightforward: high school teacher and student fall for each other; affair ends badly; student embarks on a vengeful quest to understand why.

Our heroine Carolina ("Nine") is a believable teen, strong-willed, precocious, passionate, flawed. Her love interest, Mr. Mann, I found less believable. While Mr. Mann starts out as the fiery nonconformist who inspires even his most disinterested students to pay attention, by the end he's an insipid, cringing character.

TEACH ME is strongest in its sensuously suspenseful first act, where we know Nine and Mr. Mann end up together, but not how. Nelson gets into Nine's headspace frighteningly well: the heroine's voice convincingly captures her "girl-woman"-ness, as she sagaciously refers to it. Mr. Mann's inner conflict is less clear, and is part of why the ending falls short.

Unlike other reviewers, I think Nine's revenge quest for answers is realistic and understandable: this is her first real relationship, an intense and bewildering experience. She's an analytical, science-minded girl; she has to understand how things work, why things happen. She's not content to just be told, "Because."

My main disappointment lies with the novel's third act. Nelson gives Mr. Mann easy outs: a reason why he has to dump Nine that neither of them can change; a way to symbolically redeem himself. Demystifying Mr. Mann's allure by revealing the ordinariness of his life seems a cheap way to humiliate him; I don't buy it as Nine seeing him for who he truly is, but authorial intrusion. And considering the emotional and intellectual connection the two share, it's far-fetched that Mr. Mann doesn't realize breaking it off with Nine without telling her why is going to cause so much trouble.

While Nine's best friend Schuyler is sympathetic, I also find him overwritten as the cliché uber-geek. What teen knows the etymology of curse words, casually identifies the proper genus and species of animals, and also has encyclopedic knowledge of obscure books and movies that are before his time?

These faults aside, Nelson's beautiful prose and Nine's passionate voice carry the story from arrestingly intense start to anticlimactic finish. Nine remains with me as a sharply-drawn character; Mr. Mann, not so much.(less)

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Nov 22, 2009

Courtney Cook rated it

This book is wonderful for all upcoming teachers and teens to read. Set in a small town in Alabama, Carolina becomes obsessed with her English teacher, Mr. Mann. Throughout Carolina’s senior year, the two become romantically involved, just to have Mr. Mann get married to his legitimate girlfriend before the school year is over. I really enjoyed this book. Be warned however, it is consuming! Carolina reminds me of the bored senior I was in high school and Mr. Mann reminds me of that one good-loo...more

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Jul 16, 2009

David Valliere rated it

I should mention that I am a male high school teacher in training; my review will be biased because of this, despite my love of science-related imagery.
Teach Me is a book about a very taboo relationship. A young, female, virgin student falls for an inspired, involved, male teacher. Still, despite its inclination toward what is considered to be socially unacceptable, this novel is written very well. The main character, channeling her NASA-employed father, uses astronomical, astrological, a...more

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Jul 02, 2009

Meryl rated it

Recommends it for: people interested in dirty relationships and disappointment.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "Teach Me" was actually something that my sister checked out of the library and then passed on to me because she hated it and couldn't finish reading it. So I thought I'd give it a shot. My sister was right, mostly... Unfortunately.

The problem, to start off, was that the narrator, Carolina, was such a dweeb and I couldn't even bother to try to like her. In the beginning, I thought she was hiding a dark secret as in "I'm pregnant" or "I'm a lesbian". ...more

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Jun 04, 2009

Steph Su rated it

Love, obsession, and revenge all come together in this dizzying and sensuous tale. In her senior year of high school, Carolina “Nine” Livingston falls hard for her new English teacher, the beautiful, poetry-loving Mr. Mann, who quotes Emily Dickinson all the time. Mr. Mann makes Nine feel things she didn’t even know she could feel, and she believes that the two of them will one day live together, marry, and go on their dream honeymoon.

Then a sudden announcement from Mr. Mann changes ev...more

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Jun 28, 2011

Kimberly rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-in-52-weeks-2011

Uncomfortable topic? Yes. Well written? Yes.

Carolina "Nine" begins a parent's nightmare of having an affair with her
teacher, the complicated, tortured and sensitive Mr. Mann. As the
romance intensifies, and then abruptly ends, Nine must deal with the
consequences and face who they were to each other; great loves or
mr./mrs. right now. As with most teenage breakups, this one is full of
drama, loathing, conflicted feelings and anger. But unlike...more

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Jun 15, 2009

Rhiannon Hart rated it

Carolina "Nine" Livingstone, an apt name for the daughter of a physicist, takes a poetry unit for her last semester of high school thinking it will give her a broader scope on life. It does that all right. For while Nine has plenty of smarts, she's not so accomplished when it comes to relationships. Nine falls for the new poetry teacher hard and fast, and it isn't long until Mr Mann begins to respond to Nine's hankering to be taught.

What surprised me when I picked this book...more

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Oct 17, 2011

Stacey rated it

I didn't like this book very much. I can see how the content or topic might cause others to not like it too, but in fact, the topic of a student/teacher affair was the one part of this that didn't bother me. For some it hits a squick factor, but that isn't the problem at all in my case. In fact, that was the part that drew me to the book in the first place.

The problem for me was the narrator. Maybe it is just that I am not prone to teenage narrators - not being a frequent reader of YA ...more

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Jan 18, 2011

Diamond rated it

Shelves: kindle

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Jan 09, 2012

Grace S. rated it

Shelves: favorites, girl-falls-in-love-with-teacher-gua, favorite-ya-novels

Okay, I basically got interested in this because it involves a student/teacher affair. I'm sort of a sucker for those kind of story lines. Even though I find those topics interesting, I wasn't expecting to actually like it, because I thought it would be the same as teacher/student relationships portrayed on tv shows but it wasn't it.

I really love the fact that Nine and Mr. Mann really did love each other and it wasn't just about sex or anything you expect from a student/teacher relati...more

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Jun 11, 2010

Summer Raine rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 23, 2009

Janet rated it

Shelves: could-read-it-over-and-over-again, must-read-in-your-lifetime

The synopsis? A smart, pretty, very tall loner senior joins a poetry class to kill time. The result is one teacher she can't ignore; he is everything she sees in a man and their love affair is a tension-building, romantic fantasy come true. "Giving every notion of right and wrong" their affair takes a tumble after Mr. Mann leaves her and marries. The result? A compulsive obsession with extreme focus.
The protagonist is Carolina "NINE" Livingston. A young woman who is sup...moreThe synopsis? A smart, pretty, very tall loner senior joins a poetry class to kill time. The result is one teacher she can't ignore; he is everything she sees in a man and their love affair is a tension-building, romantic fantasy come true. "Giving every notion of right and wrong" their affair takes a tumble after Mr. Mann leaves her and marries. The result? A compulsive obsession with extreme focus.
The protagonist is Carolina "NINE" Livingston. A young woman who is super focused and practices observation as an art. She is bright, different and has one friend, Schuyler. Her mind is a work of pulleys, levers, cogs and thoughts of stars and galaxies. She is fast, linear and you are reading through her thoughts. The affair begins as a tension filled friendship, playing cat and mouse with much uncertainty but once their union is complete it is obvious that this is ...love. She can't help it, this is what it is...
I have so much feeling about this book. I can't begin to describe it. Firstly the protagonist, Nine, is so fast paced, so eloquent and technical and such a dreamer. She is so focused, almost to an OCD level. She is amazing. And what starts as a crush develops one can see how multi-layered Nine is.
Mr. Mann the teacher is an amazing subject as well. He plays real, he seems fair and the way it is told he does seem perfect... no he is perfect. He's beautiful and loving; sweet and manly. Nine and Mr. Mann REALLY love each other and that is what gets me. This book is so intense, fast paced and catastrophic in every page.
I think what I love about this book is the truth it holds; the wonders it tells of how a human works. We can become obsessive about what we believe we love or about what we care about, what we hold important. We see justification in our insane actions and rambling thoughts. We have love and it leaves us, for better or for worse. Mr. Mann and Nine's relationship is so extremely different from that of any book or movie I've seen. It is so real and fresh and scary and intense through the pages. I can feel their love and passion, I can see their tension and relate to a feeling so indescribable, yet Nelson executes it perfectly.
Mr. Mann and Nine's relationship totally got me... I don't know what it is. The unfairness of how it ended... how he loved her and it was true. How simple it was for them to join-- but in one swift mistake it was all gone. No explanations, just a bitter, empty and changed Nine.
This book makes me cry when I think about it. Nine is so passionate and truthful. She explains her hurt so well I can feel as if it is happening to me...that I am Nine. I feel her pain and her despair. I see the justice in her actions, the wrong of it all. She loves him, isn't it all that matters!?
Honestly I cannot believe how much this book impacts me. Nine shows just how desperate we humans get when we do not want to believe, when we can't take something in and when we have last hopes that leave us empty. I can feel with Nine, I am scared with Nine.
I can write more and more about how I feel. This book is an amazing piece.

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Nov 09, 2009

Heather Wade rated it

This might be my new favorite book! I read this book in one day. It is SUCH a page turner and I couldn’t put it down because I couldn’t find a place to put it down. There was one thing after another that intrigued me and kept me on my toes. Nelson does a wonderful job of really capturing the obsession of a teenage girl who has fallen for her male teacher. I think it is great that the entire book was written from the point of view of the Carolina, because you never really know what Mr. Mann is th...more

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Sep 20, 2010

Karina Garcia rated it

I picked up Teach Me in high school and felt giddy as I started to read it. I was interested in the topic and the story started out great, but as it progressed, I found it hard to continue. The main character was a “typical” teenage girl that I don’t think many teenage girls like to think of themselves as.

Being around the same age as the character, I was turned off by the characters choices and remember thinking to myself “only a moron would do something like that”. As a writer, I h...more

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Mar 30, 2011

Kaisa rated it

I rate this 3,5/5... just so you know.

I'm shocked that I'm not giving it a higher rating. I really am!! Especially the part of me that read the first half of the book (well... that sentence doesn't make sense), because that part of me LOVED it to death!!... But yeah, then the second part of the book came along and I started getting frustrated.
Not at the writing.
NEVER at the writing.
Oh, R.A. Nelson, you write like I write in my dreams. Witty, clever, interesting... alway...more

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Sep 08, 2009

Katie rated it

Shelves: books-i-own

I’ve read so many novels about student/teacher relationships, so I was a little skeptical about this one, but I just after the first chapter, I knew it was going to be different.

The entire story is told through Carolina‘s, or Nine as she’s nicknamed, point of view. She’s probably one of the most unique and different characters I’ve ever read. Her thoughts aren’t ever really focused on one thing. She’s what you call a scatter-brain, but it works very well. Her story is full of complet...more

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About R.A. Nelson

R.A. Nelson is the author of the novels TEACH ME and BREATHE MY NAME, both nominated to the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults list. Nelson’s third book is DAYS OF LITTLE TEXAS, coming out on July 14 with Knopf. He is working on his fourth book, THROAT, slated for Fall 2010, also with Knopf.

Nelson was chosen as a Horn Book Newcomer in 2005 and his books have been recognized by the New Y...more

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Quotes from Teach Me

“This is the thing about life I've never really understood until now: we try so hard to control it, but bad things happen anyway. The only real control is an anti-control, a letting go.” — 26 people liked it

“There is not a name for what I'm feeling. There is no description for it.
To call it yearning would be like calling the ocean water.
Whatever this thing is, it shoves you inside itself and you can't measure its boundaries because they go too far and you don't have enough time. Or you move toward the boundaries and they move away.
There has been an earthquake in my life.
Catastrophic, civilization-ending.” — 21 people liked it

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Teach Me

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