Crossing the Water - by Daniel Robb (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Off the coast of Cape Cod lies a small windswept island called Penikese. Alone on the island is a school for juvenile delinquents, the Penikese Island School, where Daniel Robb lived and worked for three years as a teacher. By turns harsh, desolate, and starkly beautiful, the island offers its temporary residents respite from lives filled with abuse, violence, and chaos. But as Robb discovers, peace, solitude, and a structured lifestyle can go only so far toward healing the anger and hurt he finds not only in his students but within himself.
Lyrical and heartfelt, Crossing the Water is the memoir of his first eighteen months on Penikese, and a poignant meditation on the many ways that young men can become lost.

Review Quotes

Chicago Tribune Robb's journal entries vividly document what happens when education is pared down to its barest, most human essentials.

Outside magazine Without lapsing into sentimentality, this graceful memoir reveals the mettle of kids who can persevere.

Robert Coles, M.D. Crossing the Water is a wonderfully thoughtful and sensitive account of a healer's odyssey...a lyrically and candidly narrated effort that deserves a lot of respectful and grateful attention from all of us who work with children.

About the Author

Daniel Robb, a carpenter and writer, has been an editor of academic journals; a teacher in Mississippi, New York, and Massachusetts; a political consultant; and the proprietor of a literary services business. He holds degrees from Middlebury College and the Breadloaf School of English. He lives in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.