Teachers, parents, preachers, poodles and everyone else: come one, come all! A free teaching guide PDF is available for my debut novel Freakshow Summer. It’s great for classroom and home schools. Just go to this link and look over the PDF. If you want it, it is yours for the low, low price of, well…FREE! Download it and use it whenever you like.
In the hopes of making this novel accessible for teachers and students, I have completed a teaching guide for my debut novel Freakshow Summer. I will provide a digital copy of the guide for free. I have provided a sample of the guide below. For libraries interested in purchasing multiple copies, a 50% discount ($7.98) is available for orders of five or more books. Artemesia Publishing, however, is willing to give a general discount on all school purchases.
I’m sure this will be available as an ebook once it is officially published. Freakshow Summer is available at most bookselling websites.
Teachers: I officially have the teacher’s guide available and will post an excerpt soon!
I am really proud of the great work Ian Bristow has done for my novel. Geoff Habiger of Artemesia Publishing made an excellent choice for the illustrator. Stay tuned for more looks at the new novel Freakshow Summer. A PDF teacher’s guide is forth coming. A link will be provided when it is complete.
I don’t need to write about how polarized this nation is when it comes to politics. Even in a pandemic and wearing masks has become a dividing point for left versus right. So, it has become very easy to choose a side, write all the rhetoric for that side, and let everyone know where I stand, but I will not do that on this website.
As a teacher in a conservative county within a state governed by a Democratic governor, I’ve learned to walk a line. As a result, I’ve also developed my own political views. I know exactly who I will vote for in the coming election, why I will vote for that candidate, and I will never tell a single student who I voted for. It’s not that I’m gutless or ashamed of my vote, it is that it is MY vote. I don’t want to have to argue with students or have them look at me as though I’m trying to sway them to my side of the aisle. They won’t have to think, “Is this lesson Mr. B has today going to have a liberal/conservative agenda?” I don’t want them questioning my motives for why I’m teaching something in history, and whether or not I’m telling them that their parents are wrong for having certain political views. If they question something based on what I’ve taught them based on the actual text of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or some other American document, I’m okay with that.
With all this said, I have no desire to step into the political discussion. Maybe that decision will cost me some traffic. Yet, what I do know is that once I’ve taken a side, I will definitely make one side uncomfortable. I choose to remain quiet regarding my views with the hope that my writing will speaking for itself. That kindness, hard work, and education will be the emphasis. I hope that no matter what side you’re on, you can get behind those points.
Anthony Bartley 