question seven/take one

If you had to pick only one book for a writing teacher to read, what would it be?

While it doesn’t deal exclusively with writing issues/writing teachers and though it may be a little hard to get one’s hands on (i.e., next to impossible and pretty costly at this point to buy a used copy of the first edition), I’d recommend the 1971 (first) edition of Geranium. Words by Albert Cullum, art by Adams, Alcorn, Amsel, d’Andrea, Billout, Cober, Couratin, Fox, Lacroix, Ruffins, Seisser, Weisbecker and many others. Geranium is a must read for any teacher, a must read for students—in fact, if it weren’t out of print, I would put it on the required book list for most of the classes I teach. Geranium is a children’s book that Cullum dedicates to “all of those grownups who, as children, died in the arms of compulsory education.”