Making the Grade Author:Ballard, Lionel Like a dog furiously wagging its tail in a china shop, a young and very naïve Lionel Ballard stumbles through his first teaching appointment. From the classroom to a young girl's doorstep located in the wilds of the wheat belt of Australia, Ballard collides with his past and recounts his existence in the alien landscape of younger days! His fat... more »her's untimely death, his brother's amorous and reckless attitude to life; his shattering experiences in the Vietnam War and his son's battle with mental illness, reflect and mould Ballard's definition of what courage is and the purpose of what being here means to him!« less