Schooled - by Anisha Lakhani (Paperback)

About the Book

In the tradition of "The Nanny Diaries" comes this vibrant debut novel about a young teacher in an elite private school who walks into a windfall--and a world she never could have imagined--when she becomes a homework tutor to the children of New York's super-rich.

Book Synopsis

In this captivating coming-of-age story, a once underpaid teacher is swept into the glittering world of Manhattan private schools--where shopping sprees are endless and morality is optional.

"You're making how much an hour"
"Two hundred dollars."
"Do you ride in on a pony"

All she wants to do is teach. For Anna Taggert, an earnest Ivy League graduate, pursuing her passion as a teacher means engaging young hearts and minds. She longs to be in a place where she can be her best self, and give that best to her students. Turns out it isn't that easy.

Landing a job at an elite private school in Manhattan, Anna finds her dreams of chalk boards and lesson plans replaced with board families, learning specialists, and benefit-planning mothers. Not to mention the grim realities of her small paycheck.

And then comes the realization that the papers she grades are not the work of her students, but of their high-priced, college-educated tutors. After uncovering this underground economy where a teacher can make the same hourly rate as a Manhattan attorney, Anna herself is seduced by lucrative offers -- one after another. Teacher by day, tutor by night, she starts to sample the good life her students enjoy: binges at Barneys, dinners at the Waverly Inn, and a new address on Madison Avenue. Until, that is, the truth sets in.

Review Quotes

"Schooled isn't only a novel: It is a piece of sociology."--Wall Street Journal

"You won't be able to put it down."--Cosmogirl.com

About the Author

Until 2006, Anisha Lakhani taught English at The Dalton School on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Soon after she started teaching, she was named chair of the Middle School English Department. Lakhani received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University. She was born in Calcutta, India, grew up in Saddle River, New Jersey, and now lives in Manhattan with her husband and their beloved shitzu, Harold Moscowitz. Schooled is her first novel.