Lauralee Summer

Author of “Learning Joy From Dogs Without Collars”

Lauralee Summer grew up homeless and moved 20 times before she was 12. Despite the obstacles she faced in her childhood, she excelled academically and got into Harvard. 

 

Lauralee went on to make history in the Ivy League when she became the first woman to join Harvard’s varsity wrestling team.

 

After graduating from Harvard, she wrote a critically-acclaimed memoir, Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars, and then went on to attend graduate school at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Today she is a high school teacher in the Boston Public Schools.

Learning Joy From Dogs Without Collars

What critics say about Lauralee’s book: 

 

“...groundbreaking...unforgettable”

Booklist

 

 

“This is the best of memoirs - frank, compelling, a place where the intensely personal meshes with the political.”

San Jose Mercury News

 

“A gem...This memoir [tells] of a woman's singular determination and impressive achievement.”

     The Boston Globe

“Summer tells her story in a quiet, true voice that will make you smile and cry, sometimes both at once.”

     Reader's Digest

 

 

"[A] powerful and stylish memoir....”

Library Journal

 

 

“…extremely timely and relevant in our current political climate, in which the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, and issues of class and education are regularly in the news, whether with reference to the No Child Left Behind Act or to the recent cuts in federal financial aid programs that will disproportionately affect low-income students.”

Women’s Studies Quarterly, Fall 2006

 

“Lauralee Summer writes about her childhood...with no
self-pity and only a touch of awe that she not only survived, but thrived.”
     Chicago Tribune

“Summer's tale is memorable as she writes frankly about poverty, shame and class distinctions.”

Publishers Weekly

By Lauralee Summer

Available now in paperback from Simon & Schuster

Click here to order