Before he wrote Angela’s Ashes, McCourt spent 30 years teaching in public high schools in New York. A typical educator he was not. There were odd-ball singalongs in class, field trips to the movies, and, inevitably, firings because he refused to suffer the foolishness of superiors. There was also a decades-long procession of students for whom McCourt felt unmistakable love. This account of his time with them is written with the same wry wit and honesty that infuse Angela’s Ashes. It’s uplifting and ennobling—public service without preciousness. It’s also thoroughly enjoyable.