After three decades in public education, in roles that have ranged from high school teacher to district administrator, Bakersfield College alumna Patricia Kokinos has just about seen it all—disaffected and dissatisfied students at one of the nation’s top 100 schools, dirty district politics in small town America, and colleagues driven over the edge for simply wanting to do right by students.  In her award-winning debut novel, Angel Park, Kokinos tackles the question, “When did school become a matter of life and death?”

Angel Park is set in fictitious Cornwall, New York, a small town that isn’t as idyllic as it seems. Constance “Connie” Demetrios, the novel’s main character, is a recent transplant to Cornwall struggling to understand why her boss, a top school district administrator, was driven to commit suicide. It doesn’t take long for Connie to realize that egos and corruption at the top have trickled down and infected the whole system with apathy and frustration.

As the story evolves, Connie sees how deeply embedded, outmoded ways of thinking are harming the very people she and her colleagues have committed to educating. Not willing to become another martyr for the cause, she is forced into action.

In this nuanced novel, which Kokinos describes as “a wake-up call,” readers are asked to think about who suffers most when, as she puts it:

“The school system is paralyzed by bureaucracy, structural racism, power politics, blind tradition, and self-serving agendas.”

Kokinos hopes Angel Park will strike an emotional chord with readers and empower them to join her crusade for school reform. Kokinos believes that “Changing the schools can change the world!”