Chain Gang Elementary Author:Jonathan Grant ?In the first place, God created idiots. This was for practice. Then he created School Boards.? ?Mark Twain After a murder at Bonaire Elementary, Richard and Anna Lee Gray seek a good school for their son Nick in a safe neighborhood. Their search leads them to Malliford, a ?school of excellence.? When redistricting sends scores of minority st... more »udents to Malliford, iron-willed Principal Estelle Rutherford declares war on kids to raise test scores and save her reputation. Dissident parents revolt, electing Richard to head the Parent-Teacher Organization, and tensions explode. Welcome to Chain Gang Elementary, home to vast right-wing conspiracies, 3rd-grade gangsters, and bake sale embezzlers?where toxic childhood secrets boil over, reformers go stark raving mad, and culture wars escalate into armed conflict. A tale of war that is poignant, timely, and brutally funny, Chain Gang Elementary is a One Flew over the Cuckoo?s Nest for the K-6 world. First Sentence: In the twelfth year of his marriage, sixteen months before the shooting, twenty-one shopping days until Christmas, and eight hours before he reckoned for the tenth time that his wife didn?t love him, Richard Gray met a woman who would have roughly the same effect on his life a tornado has on a trailer park. Visit www.chaingangelementary.com or Chain Gang Elementary's facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chain-Gang-Elementary/268343289846138?v=wall« less