ABOUT The Author
David Paris is an educator from New York City. He has spent twenty-five years teaching literacy, dance, and communication in the city’s public-school system. At M.S. 88, Paris serves as a coordinator and staff developer. He has led community- building workshops for teachers, students, and parents.
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Paris is a tireless advocate for a literacy-based empathy curriculum. He is a nonviolent communication trainer with NYCNVC.org and a classroom teacher trainer for Outward Bound.
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Paris is also passionate about acrobatic dance. He and his dance partner, Zoë Klein, were semifinalists on America’s Got Talent. Paris has taught and performed in twenty-six countries and created nine instructional DVDs.
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He is also passionate about using humor and topics that students care about in order to teach critical thinking skills and life lessons.
In his twenty-five years as an educator, David Paris has encountered middle schoolers from all walks of life. He has also encountered the many reasons that his students are reluctant to read. They believed it had no intrinsic value in their lives, and they didn’t understand its future importance. Paris spent his career helping students work past this reluctance and experience the joy of a good book.
Laughable Legends of M.S. 99, a series of short stories that address the realities of adolescence and school in fun and fulfilling ways. His collection includes tales of a student dedicated to failing every class he takes, a girl obsessed with circles who meets a boy who loves lines, a fight between a busy graffiti artist and the school custodian, a mean bully cursed by the school witch, and other unique and hilarious situations. Even the most hesitant reader will find something to love about Paris’s work, and middle schoolers will discover that they’re not alone. In this crazy world of hormones, gossip, and gamers, the power of books brings everyone together.
