Confessions of a School Teacher and Other Stories

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax.

Don’t let the title fool you—this is not a book about teaching. The
schoolmarmish-looking woman in the cover photo turns out to be the
mistress of the author’s uncle. Rather than a treatise on teaching,
the book is a delightful excursion into small-town Ontario over the past
century.

MacDonald obviously has a tremendous affection and respect for all of
the members of his large family, and his vignettes of their lives reveal
them to be a colorful group. It is impossible to know if these are
faithful renderings of fact, or even if all of the characters are real;
the author shrouds the identities of some in mystery (even the
accompanying photographs may be spurious). The nonchronological ordering
of events adds to the obfuscation. Whether or not these stories are
fiction, MacDonald writes with humor, insight, and compassion about
ordinary people with whom the reader can identify.