Schooled: A Novel

Written by Ted Fox

Narrated by Scott Merriman

From a delightful new voice in fiction comes the story of a stay-at-home dad reclaiming his past and discovering a new future.

Jack Parker didn’t set out to be a stay-at-home dad, but his professional dreams went up in smoke after he accidentally burned down his office building. Six years later, Jack’s got parenting his two kids down cold.

Then comes an unwelcome blast from Jack’s past: high school nemesis Chad Henson. He beat out Jack for class president, stole his girlfriend, and never had so much as a pimple in his four years of adolescent bliss. Now Chad has moved to the same midwestern town Jack calls home.

When Jack learns Chad is running for president of his daughter’s school board, he decides to run to settle old scores. But parent politics prove more cutthroat than Jack could have imagined, and he’s facing unexpected challenges in his marriage, too, forcing him to question his role in the family. Suddenly, the election is about more than Jack’s past. It’s an opportunity to discover the person he wants to become.

People grow up, but some high school rivalries never die. It’s time Chad Henson got schooled once and for all—and for Jack to learn a few things of his own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781799784036

Ted Fox

Ted Fox is the author of the jokebook You Know Who’s Awesome? (Not You.) and once solved the New York Times crossword puzzle forty-six days in a row (not a joke). He lives in Indiana with his wife, their two kids, and two German short-haired pointers who are frankly baffled there aren’t more dogs in his books. The recipient of a prestigious “No. 1 Dad” keychain, Fox was widely recognized as having the best swaddling technique of anyone in the family when his kids were babies. And not just the immediate family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, everybody. Anyway, Schooled is his first novel.

Reviews for Schooled

[mstrust · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jack had a high school nemesis, Chad, who lied about having cancer in order to win class president over Jack. They went their separate ways after high school, with Jack helping to found a company that did very well. Then he had a mishap in the breakroom and set the building on fire, and was fired in a video that went viral, forever labeling him as "that guy".He's spent the last six years as a stay-at-home dad while his wife rises in her company, which means spending less time at home.And then Chad moves into their neighborhood, and he's also a stay-at-home dad. The two both decide to run for president of the elementary school board, thereby recreating their high school friction.A mostly light story that has some fun backstabbing and sabotage, along with much about the difficulty of parenting. The ending was unsatisfying for me.