Bring The Real Education of TJ Crowley to Your Classroom
Kansas Book of the Year
2025 Audie Award Winner
For Grades 7–12 Social Studies & ELA Classrooms
Start with a 7-minute classroom sample scene.
START THE 7-MINUTE CLASSROOM SAMPLE
Follow the script as the audio plays — just as your students would.
Ready for Full Classroom Access?
A Time Like Our Own.
Teach history where it happened.
An immersive full-cast audio drama and read-along scriptbook for Grades 7–12.
Set in the Civil Rights era. Built for Kansas History instruction.
AudioFile Earphones Award · Audie Award for Best YA Audiobook · IPPY Gold Medal
Bring TJ Crowley to Your School
  • Award-Winning Audio Drama: A professional, fully-produced auditory experience that brings the 1968 setting to life.
  • The Scriptbook: A tactile, classroom-ready format specifically designed for student interaction and verbal literacy.
  • Educational Resources: A suite of materials built to support Social Studies, Regional History, and Citizenship standards.
Direct Publisher Price: $19.99 (regularly $22.99)
Available through this page.
Students Confront History and Themselves
Students at Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet (6th-8th grade) connected TJ Crowley's story to their own lives. They explored Wichita's Civil Rights legacy, prompting deep personal insight and thoughtful discussion.
“TJ Crowley reminded me of people I know. The way he started seeing things differently made me ask how I act around people who are different from me.”
“This audio drama made me feel uncomfortable in a way that was good. It made me want to learn more.”
“The spirituals were my favorite part. They made it feel like you were hearing the soul of the people who had to fight just to live.”
What Educators Are Saying about tj crowley
“TJ Crowley led my students to ask mature, challenging questions about their own communities, their own moral choices, and the history of our city. One of the best classroom experiences in my 17 years of teaching.”
— Amanda Harcus, gifted educator, Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet
“The Real Education of TJ Crowley is one of the most popular books in my classroom library. My students connect to TJ, Ivy, and their classmates in the way great books do: both entertaining and challenging them. The questions the book raises about identity, class, and family resonate with young women and men encountering a world with injustice and conflict for the first time.”
— Dave McIntire, Kansas History Teacher of the Year, Pembroke Hill School
“This is a book that demands discussion. Read it in a group and talk genuinely about history and its important connection to current society.”
— Marguerite Penick-Parks, Ph.D., Everyday White People and A Guide for White Women Teaching Black Boys
Advisory Note
This story includes racial slurs and depictions of racial injustice. Recommended for mature teens in guided, educator-supported settings.
Order Info
Scriptbook: Direct Publisher Price: $19.99 (regularly $22.99)
Bulk orders for classroom sets. Institutional pricing available.
Grain Valley Publishing is a Kansas-based independent press fostering empathy and understanding through storytelling. The Real Education Project is an initiative of Grain Valley Publishing that brings award-winning narrative learning into classrooms and community spaces.