THERE'S NEVER BEEN A SCHOOL YEAR LIKE THE ONE AT P.S. 961…
"ALL TALKING STOPPED. Martin's airless room—a bunker-like, below-street-level space with bare walls—took on the thickness of a halftime basketball locker room. Martin rolled his shoulders, the back of his shirt sticking to his skin. Three boys scraped their desks closer together, as if convening a team meeting. Martin was sure the agenda involved sizing up his future, or lack thereof, as a teacher at their school. The possibility of one of them pulling a knife and rushing him came in at 50/50..."
It's 2007 in New York City, and the well-meaning Mr. J, a newly arrived teacher still mourning the loss of his sister, latches onto a vulnerable student. Kandra, a bright but troubled girl, pushes boundaries to the limit in pursuit of a brazen intimacy with her teacher, risking far more than failing grades in a school filled with emotionally disturbed teenagers.
Mr. J struggles to help Kandra and his other students amidst an environment where volatility is rampant, but he finds limited support among the colleagues who should be able to help the most. Mr. Cody, the principal, is on the brink of retirement and only intermittently engaged, much to the school's detriment. And Shirley, a dedicated veteran teacher, knows a reckoning looms but can do little to prevent it.
As fierce as it is heartbreaking, Exit Tickets, told from multiple points of view, lays bare the dreams and struggles, sacrifices and heroism of its characters.
Exit Tickets Reviews
Rarely is a school days chronicle so beautifully and carefully constructed, exploring the struggles, mini-betrayals, heartaches, hopes, and dreams of its characters within the diverse--and often troubled--microcosm of a contemporary public school setting. The novel also examines larger questions of loss and hopelessness with a tenderness that's both heartbreaking and beautiful.
Chanko juggles the presentation of all these characters and their issues with immense skill. Because the novel focuses on a different character in each chapter, it effectively presents a prism of perspectives as each of the characters struggle with their own unique challenges over the course of the story. The author combines realistic dialogue, complex contemporary social issues, and characters to root for in this narrative. The result is a masterful tapestry of strife and resiliency.
Kirkus Reviews
Chanko's powerful debut offers a pained, persuasive, and empathetic portrayal of the American public education system through the microcosm of a District 75 middle school on New York City's Upper East Side.
Surveying the 2007-2008 school year, the central narrative follows Martin Jordanowski, or Mr. J, a young writing enrichment teacher whose first-day optimism is quickly slapped into reality by reckless students, disillusioned colleagues, and administrative barriers. His bond with Kandra McKissick, a troubled yet bright student, complicates matters as lines blur between personal concern and professional responsibility. With clear eyes and sharp everyday detail, Exit Tickets alternates between the perspectives of students, teachers, and administrators, illuminating how individual struggles intersect with institutional dysfunctions.
Chanko crafts a polyphonic narrative in which a rich array of voices reveals interlocking, escalating failures of the system -- and the hearts of those caught up in it. This includes Shirley Holmes, a weary veteran teacher balancing ill health, family, and job pressures, and Stephanie Slotnick, a young teacher bullied by students. The dialogue is sharp and full of local color, alternating between humor and poignancy. Through Annalisa Benitez, the jargon-obsessed assistant principal, Chanko satirizes reformist buzzwords like "exit tickets" and "scholars," laying bare how administrative solutions often mask rather than solve deeper structural problems. The novel moves fluidly between domestic and professional spaces, underscoring how personal and work identities are intricately intertwined.
What's most striking about the novel is the honesty with which Chanko -- a journalist and Manhattan schoolteacher -- gives life to his characters. Neither students nor teachers are reduced to stereotypes. They are profoundly human, with flaws and contradictions, caught between exhaustion and compassion. At times, the fragmented perspectives make the narrative feel disjointed, much like educators' and students' actual days, and Chanko is too committed a truth-teller to offer false hope in the climax. Readers interested in realistic depictions of urban education will find this immersive story essential reading.
Takeaway: Powerful, realistic portrayal of life in the American public education system.
Editor's Pick, Publishers Weekly
The characterization of Mr. J. as strong in his relationships with students, on the one hand, and weak in his self-confidence – leading to his excessive drinking – on the other, makes him real, almost jumping off the page in his naïveté and humanity.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Must read 🏆
Reedsy Discovery
Exit Tickets revolves around Martin and Kandra, but there’s a range of other characters in the mix, and the rotating perspective includes nearly all of them. It’s an effective strategy…the portraits of these people are layered and convincing, as is the general milieu they inhabit. It’s plain to see that Chanko is, generally speaking, writing from experience. Exit Tickets has the potential to attract a broad audience.
IndieReader
Chanko delivers an authentic portrait of the classroom, capturing both the healing power of writing and the risks of blurred boundaries. As a school social worker, I found Exit Tickets to be both inspiring and cautionary—a story that will resonate with anyone who has taught or cared for vulnerable youth.
Emely Rumble, LCSW, author of Bibliotherapy in the Bronx
An incisive look at a public school community through sharply drawn scenes and alternating points of view. Chanko builds interest through subtle shifts in power, from uneasy classroom moments to private conversations that test professional boundaries. Despite heavy circumstances, the story moves forward, driven by character choices and the uncertainty of their next steps. Martin’s missteps, Kandra’s fierce attachment, and the faculty’s pressures form a portrait of institutional life that comes across as very realistic. Readers seeking a depiction of educators and adolescents negotiating life's realities will find this book stays with them long after the term ends.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Readers’ Favorite
One of the book’s most compelling themes is the performance of authority vs. the reality of connection. The titular ‘exit tickets,’ a pedagogical tool meant to assess learning, become a poignant symbol of the disconnect between administrative ‘best practices’ and the actual needs of the students. For students like Kandra McKissick, a bright yet guarded girl who forms a complex bond with Mr. J, the formal education system often feels like a series of boxes to check that have nothing to do with her life.
The relationship between Mr. J and Kandra serves as the novel's emotional anchor, exploring themes of vulnerability and the search for identity. Kandra uses her journal to express a voice that the school’s rigid structure doesn't accommodate, while Mr. J finds in her a reminder of why he chose this path, even as he navigates the professional risks of their friendship.
Chanko also masterfully weaves in the theme of escapism. Whether it’s Mr. J fleeing his small-town roots in Osceola, Indiana, or students like Shay seeking status and power within the school walls, everyone is trying to find a way out or a way through.
For anyone who has ever sat at a desk, on either side, this is a deeply personal must-read.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ The Manhattan Book Review
Encompassing the school year, Chanko’s novel moves apace of holidays and daily challenges and accelerates as Martin and Kandra’s interpersonal crisis converges with administrative ones. Martin’s and Kandra’s contrasting perspectives highlight the dangers of blurred boundaries, and the chapters devoted to them achieve psychological depth. Their arcs mirror one another’s well, resulting in plenty of tension.
In addition to Martin and Kandra, multiple other people are the focus of individual chapters, but the transitions between different scenes are quite emotive and natural, with chapters ending on one person’s actions or feelings and the next picking up with the effects of their behaviors on another person. Their storylines intersect with Martin’s and Kandra’s, evincing the broader school ecosystem they navigate. The prose is immersive and the story moves toward a poignant ending in which the central issues are resolved in a credible and satisfying manner.
Exit Tickets is a tense, grounded novel about human struggles in the public school system.
Foreword/Clarion Reviews
Chanko writes with unusual cleverness about systemic failures in urban special education, the blurred lines between mentorship and exploitation, intergenerational trauma, and the redemptive power of writing. He avoids easy resolutions, delivering instead a compassionate, unsentimental portrait of educators and students traversing a broken world.
★★★★★ The Book Commentary
By shifting across viewpoints, the narrative deepens its complexity, resisting any simple version of events. In the end, the book stands as a grounded portrayal of teaching—often politicized, rarely rendered with this level of nuance. Chanko balances institutional critique with individual responsibility, revealing how fragile even the best motives become under pressure. Fans of Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi will want to take a look. A triumph!
★★★★★ The Prairies Book Review