Other People's Kids (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781960573438)

After being attacked by a disgruntled parent in the parking lot of the private high school where she has taught English for the past twelve years, traumatized 45-year-old Chelsea Garden flees the San Francisco Bay Area for her hometown of Imperial Flats in the Northern California foothills. But even after being away for six years, she finds the complicated relationship she has with her mother the same as ever. At a chance meeting, beleaguered principal Nora Delgado offers Chelsea a long-term substitute position at Imperial Flats High School. To complicate matters, her former classmate and messy first love, Evan Dawkins, has also recently joined the faculty to teach music. He is caring for his father who has dementia and battling with his ex-girlfriend over the welfare of their nine-year-old daughter, Violet. He's tired. And wasn't expecting Chelsea Garden to walk back into his life.

Other People's Kids follows three educators: one at the beginning of his career, one in the middle of hers, and one on her way out as Evan, Chelsea, and Nora try to navigate the usual complications of middle age and the entanglements of their relationships. Do they have the strength at this point in their lives to risk change?