Up the Down Staircase

By: Bel Kaufman

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is one of the best-loved novels of our time. It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prizewinning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.

Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose clash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents – anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.

©1964 Bel Kaufman (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Very entertaining

I really enjoyed this reading. It was my first time using an audio book and it will not be my last. I had read this book previously and it was a little slow and was easy to loose interest but the narrator made everything so entertaining and lively it was hard not to feel like I was in the book myself. I had to do this reading for one of my education courses at school and I am glad I did.

Great story with a great reader!

A language teacher I am currently working with recommended this book because of the writing style. As a 62 year old, of course I've heard of it, but never got a chance to read it. I loved the performance in addition to the way this touching story was told. I spoke to many of my friends who are teachers and they are going to go and re-read it now or hear it on tape.
Even though things were quite different when this book was written, I think that dedicated teachers have always been God-sent to our society. Bless them and their efforts to touch lives!

Very good book

It took a minute to get used to the writing style. Then loved it.

Barbara Rosenblat makes it marvelous

l read this book probably 40 years ago and it was good, great now with Barbara's voices.

On teachers and pupils

An excellent book and still so relevant today.
Apparently teacher-pupil relationships never really change.

Amazing how much and how little some things change

So many things rang true 30+ years later! I really enjoyed from start to finish.

relevant

this was crazy how accurate bit still is. I laughed out loud several times! If you plan on teaching read this
!

Always relevant

I first read this book when I was 15, quite by accident. I have since read it 5 time through the years, the last time about 10 years. The words written on paper, and this most excellent reading of the book are even more important and revealing now that I am in my senior years! And this is probably not the last time I will listen to this audio version.

Grab a tissue

Teachers and students will cry for joy and pathos. Timeless and profoundly moving. Vivid depictions of real characters in education.

better as a read

doesn't go well as an audio book, good, just misses the mark when reading memos and student work