Class Mom
CBC Books | | Posted: November 11, 2017 1:25 AM | Last Updated: May 27, 2019
Laurie Gelman
Jen Dixon is not your typical Kansas City kindergarten class mom-or mom in general. Jen already has two college-age daughters by two different (probably) musicians, and it's her second time around the class mom block with five-year-old Max-this time with a husband and father by her side. Though her best friend and PTA President sees her as the "wisest" candidate for the job (or oldest), not all of the other parents agree.
From recording parents' response times to her emails about helping in the classroom, to requesting contributions of "special" brownies for curriculum night, not all of Jen's methods win approval from the other moms. Throw in an old flame from Jen's past, a hyper-sensitive "allergy mom," a surprisingly sexy kindergarten teacher, and an impossible-to-please Real Housewife-wannabe, causing problems at every turn, and the job really becomes much more than she signed up for. (From St. Martin's Press)
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From the book
The nineties were a bit of a lost decade for me. After a blistering four years at the University of Kansas (Go, Jayhawks!) I found myself with a super-useful degree in art history and not a chance in hell of finding a job with it. So, I decided to hit the road and see a bit of the world. Some people go to Paris to look at great art; some go to Rome to look at great architecture. Me? I went to Amsterdam to see a great band. INXS was just starting to ride their wave of international success, thanks to the album X. Luckily for me, they weren't sofamous that they would only date supermodels. I got picked out of the audience thanks in part to the "no bra" phase I was going through, and lo and behold I ended up a groupie.
You know that Cameron Crowe movie Almost Famous, where the girls are called Band-Aids and they travel with the band and keep the musicians', um, morale up? It was kind of like that but not nearly as glamorous. I was with INXS for a little over a year, then moved on to a folksinger named Greg Brown. Yeah, I had never heard of him either, but he could certainly draw a crowd, albeit an unwashed one. In those three years away, I somehow ended up with two kids, one of whom may or may not have been fathered by Michael Hutchence. Thanks to his untimely death in 1997, poor Vivs may never know. But Laura's sperm donor was most definitely Greg Brown's banjo player. I'm 65 percent sure.
From Class Mom by Laurie Gelman ©2017. Published by Henry Holt and Co.