Daniel Pennac has never forgotten what it was like to be a dunce. Neither has he forgotten the day an inspirational teacher saved his life by assigning him the task of writing a novel, the moment when Pennac realized that no-one has to be a failed student for ever. In this humane and humorous reflection on education, Pennac engages with his past self-as both pupil and teacher - to understand how fear can make children reject education and how inventive thinking and inspired teaching can lure them back. Applying all the wit and ventriloquism of a renowned comic novelist, he enacts the dialogues shared between pupils, parents and teachers the world over, and unpicks the cycles of blame and neglect that leave struggling students adrift in a faltering system.