This book is a heartwarming and inspiring read for anyone interested in education and how it can positively impact students' lives. You Jin's portrayal of a determined teacher trying to connect with her students, including misfits, loners, and rebellious dropouts, is both funny and touching. Her commitment to making a difference will inspire readers to believe in the power of education as a force for change.

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A chain-smoking student with a violent past. A girl with a weakness for rare turtles. A boy who sees a raging fire each time he opens his exam booklet. In this collection of funny and heartwarming stories by You Jin, a teacher finds herself confronted with misfits and loners, rebellious dropouts and overbearing, even abusive parents. Yet she remains determined to reach out to her students. Combining an assured style with sensitive portrayals, Teaching Cats to Jump Hoops is the first translation into English of a popular voice in Chinese literature.Tham Yew Chin has published more than 150 books in Chinese in Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia under the pen name, You Jin. These include novels, short story collections, travelogues and essays. She is the first recipient of both the Singapore Chinese Literary Award and the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award. She has been a schoolteacher for nearly thirty years and received Singapore’s Cultural Medallion in 2009. This is her first book to be translated into English.Sylvia Li-chun Lin is co-translator of the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize-winning novel, Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu. Her co-translation of Chu T’ien-wen’s Notes of a Desolate Man won the American Literary Translators Association’s 2000 National Translation Award. She is also a winner of the Liang Shih–chiu Literary Translation Prize.

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