Books To Read if You Love Abbott Elementary

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal’s plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies the PTA president in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan. Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families.

Brianna Rogers has been told a time (or six) she needs to stop jumping into things head first. But when the principal rescinds his approval for a library upgrade, deciding to spend the money on a football field instead, she sees red. Literally. Brianna throws her hat in the ring and joins a team of teachers who will spend their summer in a Mars simulation. As the sister of an astronaut, this should be easy, right? What she didn’t count on was the last-minute addition to the team — Roman Major: science teacher, son of the principal, and too handsome for his own good. Roman and Brianna have been hot and cold all year, and living in close quarters intensifies their animosity and attraction.

Sylvia Barrett arrives at New York City’s Calvin Coolidge High fresh from earning literature degrees at Hunter College and eager to shape young minds. Instead, she encounters broken windows, a lack of supplies, a stifling bureaucracy, and students with no interest in Chaucer. Her bumpy yet ultimately rewarding journey is narrated through an extraordinary collection of correspondence — sternly worded yet nonsensical administrative memos, furtive notes of wisdom from teacher to teacher, “polio consent slips,” and student homework assignments that unwittingly speak from the heart. An instant bestseller when it was first published in 1964, it timelessly depicts a beleaguered public school system redeemed by teachers who love to teach and students who long to be recognized.

Franklin Swift was a sometimes-employed construction worker and a not-quite-divorced dad of two. Zora Banks was a teacher, singer, and songwriter.  In this funny, gritty love story, Franklin and Zora join the ranks of fiction’s most compelling couples as they move from Scrabble to sex, from layoffs to the limits of faith and trust. Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It’s about respect — what it can and can’t survive. And it’s about the safe and secret places that only love can find.

Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start. Yet not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous. When Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley’s scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one’s comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.

Just like Janine, Lily Greene, shy and bookish, feels inadequate compared to her accomplished family. Stuck in the nonfiction division, she dreams of becoming a children’s book editor. She finds solace in emails with her favorite fantasy author, which turns into a friendship — until he ghosts her. Months later, Lily seeks a date for her sister’s wedding and turns to her charming new neighbor, Nick. Unbeknownst to her, Nick is actually, her favorite author. As Nick realizes Lily is the same person he fell for over email, he agrees to help her find a date, despite his growing feelings for her …  

Ayesha is a reluctant teacher who dreams of being a poet. In debt to her wealthy uncle, Ayesha needs a day job to be able to pay him back. However, she is determined to make it on her own, eschewing her family’s demands that she get an arranged marriage. But then she meets Khalid, and everything becomes a lot more complicated …

Janine Teagues and Such a Fun Age heroine, Emira, have a lot in common. They both live in the Philadelphia area and answer to “self-made girl bosses,” even though they can feel a bit lost at times. Such a Fun Age deep-dives into complex subject matters like race, class, and identity in a way that is both profound and highly entertaining.

Ava Coleman is, arguably, one of the funniest characters on television right now. She’s unpredictable at times and can be unreliable, as well as standoffish, just like Skye. Fans of the disconnected principal will enjoy rooting for Skye as she figures out how to navigate motherhood after a twelve-year-old girl pops up, a result of when Skye, young and broke, sold her eggs …

If you’ve watched the show, you can probably guess who is and isn’t a late bloomer. (Yes it’s Janine and possibly Gregory and Jacob, too.) Now, try to imagine if your parents were late bloomers. That’s the new reality for the Raman family. After 36 years of a dutiful yet unhappy arranged marriage, Suresh and Lata are getting a divorce. Now they, and their kids, try to navigate this new world and learn how to be happy.

In Season 1, the garden that Barbara and Jacob have been tending starts to bear fruit. Despite Gregory’s initial reluctance to participate,  he finds he just can’t help himself from getting involved. This book will inspire all aspiring green thumbs to learn how and why we should all invest in city gardens. Urban gardening can be a community or family effort, and no matter how big or how small your garden is, Ford shares how rewarding it can be.

Despite the teachers and staff of Abbott Elementary making the best of what they have, they struggle to obtain basic necessities to teach. In this important book, Desmond makes a sound argument on what America can do to end poverty by uncovering who stands to benefit the most in our current system.

There’s a lot of Black girl magic on Abbott Elementary. This book encapsulates all the feelings of Black womanhood in a series of letters and essays. Tackling subjects such as sisterhood, identity, self-love, and mental health, Winfrey Harris delivers a powerful book full of open letters to Black girls and women everywhere.

There might be a workplace romance brewing on Abbott Elementary, and we are all waiting for it to unfold. Nobody expects to fall in love while at work but sometimes it just happens. Dreamy Daniels just needs a little bit of luck because she knows she deserves to be loved. Her luck might change once she meets the handsome potential investor her boss brings to the office.

Who doesn’t love a good party? In Abbott Elementary, the teachers had an unforgettable holiday party. To keep the party going, you’ll love this YA collection of interconnected stories that take place during an epic house party. Filled with teen drama like new relationships, enemies-to-friends, and heartbreaking romances, these stories will stick with you for a long time.