When a teacher writes a novel about teachers... ✏️


New release from Sibylline Press today!


Sometimes, life doesn't follow a lesson plan...

After being attacked by a disgruntled parent in the parking lot of the private San Francisco Bay Area high school where she has taught English for the past twelve years, traumatized Chelsea Garden flees to her hometown of Imperial Flats in the Northern California foothills. When Chelsea meets beleaguered principal of Imperial Flats High School, Nora Delgado, the two realize they might have found each other at an essential crossroads. To complicate matters, her former classmate and messy first love, Evan Dawkins, has also recently joined the faculty at IFHS to teach music. And he wasn’t expecting Chelsea to walk back into his life. Other People’s Kids follows three educators: one at the beginning of his career, one in the middle of hers, and one on her way out. A story about teaching, hometowns, and risking change in midlife.


Praise for Other People's Kids

“This big-hearted, sweet-souled, tenderly funny book is just the balm we’ve all been wishing for.”

Josh Weil, California Book Award-winning author of The Age of Perpetual Light


“Written by a career educator, this [novel] offers a rare glimpse into the complex lives of teachers, engaging readers in a middle-aged coming-home narrative and inviting them to reflect on the struggles faced by contemporary teachers nationwide.”

Kirkus Reviews


Marin Independent Journal: California teacher gets personal in new book

About the Author

Kim Culbertson is the award-winning author of five YA novels with Sourcebooks and Scholastic as well as the author of the Heinemann teaching guide 100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing. Other People’s Kids is her first novel for adults. She lives in Northern California where she has been teaching high school since 1997.


Book Trailer

video preview

Come see Kim on tour!

Saturday, August 9 – 3pm

Celebrate the launch of Other People's Kids at The BookSeller in Grass Valley, CA

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Wednesday, September 17 – 6pm

Kim Culbertson in Conversation with Mary Alice Stephens at Sausalito Books by the Bay

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