New Trier High School close to O’Hare airport in Chicago has been an exemplary school for as many years as I can remember and have had terrific teacher librarians during its history. Bellanca, who is currently the Executive Director of the Partnership for21st Century Learning of which AASL is a partner organization, began a school within a school experiment at New Trier High School many years ago dedicated to teens who wanted to take command of their own learning. In this book, you read numerous essays by the teachers of these kids and these kids, now in many professions, about their recollection of what happened there and how it contributed to their life’s dreams and success. There are not many longitudinal studies of learners out there. This is one. Another is the work done by our Carol Kuhlthau as she has tracked students she taught information literacy to many years ago and has made a contribution to their lives and to librarianship as a whole. So many folks are into direct teaching and data0driven assessment that produces cookie-cutter stamped human robots; but, this book is another of an awakening that is growing and growing. Yes, kids need some direction; but they also need the opportunity to develop their own instructs and passions and be encouraged to think outside the box and well as in the box. Teacher librarians need to recognize and cultivate both main ideas of education and no matter the philosophy of the school, provide the environment within the learning commons that cultivates every kind of learner and learning group. Along with reading The Promise of a Pencil, read this account. You can skip around, sampling short autobiographical essays, and use these as examples as you talk to teens each day. A must read.