Upper Class

Ma parks in the driveway but doesn’t get out. I wait in the passenger seat, not meeting her eyes. I feel…yuck. Like, I feel untrustworthy, even though I know I totally am trustworthy. “Ma,” I say. “I didn’t mean to end up there.” Ma coughs. “Naomi…let’s not talk now. Let’s talk tomorrow. In school.” I look at her; she can’t be serious. But Ma is looking straight ahead. An overactive nephew whose mother seems blind to the truth staring her in the face… A friend who is spiraling downward at a frighteningly fast pace… A world-class mechaneches who is beloved by all her students besides one: her own daughter… Having your mother as your teacher, when you are in eleventh grade, has got to be the worst. Naomi Taub would know. She has been dreading eleventh grade for as long as she can remember—because Morah Taub is the eleventh grade Chumash teacher and mechaneches. Then Shan Davis enters the scene—and the tightrope Naomi finds herself constantly walking becomes even more taut and complex, with some of her deepest values suddenly being put to the test. In Upper Class, by beloved novelist Ariella Schiller, the world of teenage girls is explored through Naomi’s lens. As Naomi struggles with difficult decisions, clashing friendship and family loyalties, and facing her insecurities, she discovers some startling truths about her mother, her sisters, her friends…and herself.