Rip Current (PB) (2015)

Antrone Davis attends Ella Baker Elementary School in the Truth Towers neighborhood in Chicago's inner city. Antrone's future hangs in the balance between life-long success and life-long failure, possibly even between a rewarding life and an early death. Does the gifted Antrone Davis respond to the urgings of his teachers and concerned community members to prepare himself to lead a good life? Or does he follow the persuasive voices of his gang-infested neighborhood streets calling him to "live free?" Midnight Apostles' gang captain and drug lord, Little Willie Hands has targeted Antrone for gang membership. Antrone's teacher, Mr. K, and colleague Pride Mosely, wage war against the sinister gang captain both in the classroom and on the streets. The future of Antrone Davis is finally decided in a deadly showdown between these two courageous teachers and the Midnight Apostles street gang. Can the forces of good overcome the forces of evil to keep Chicago's inner city streets from claiming yet another young African-American's future? Spencer Barnard is a lifelong educator with experience as a classroom teacher, school administrator, publisher of supplemental learning materials, and graduate school instructor in the field of education. He writes reality based novels of special interest to K-12 teachers. He sees teachers as among America's greatest assets and his novels plainly reveal how their work in the classroom contributes to the solution of some of America's most pressing social problems. His first novel, The Emerald Pearl Pen shows how two perceptive teachers intervened in the life of an adolescent girl to bring her back from the brink of suicide. Rip Current: An Inner City's Teacher's Tale is the story of two elementary teachers who labor in the classroom and in the neighborhood to save their students from the perils of their gang-infested streets. Mr. Barnard maintains a Web site at inpraiseofteachers.com that celebrates the indispensable work of K-12 educators by offering valuable teaching inspirations and insights. Mr. Barnard is the father of five grown children and lives in Bourbonnais, Illinois with his wife Mary Ann.