An original view of education and learning in an institution called school, with empathy for those, who sit in the classrooms.

In the autobiographical book Chagrin d'école Daniel Pennac remembers his own school years and the years of his teaching. He writes passionately about education, untraditionally from the point of view of weaker pupils, that have problems at school. He understands them a lot - he was also during his school years one of them, a hopeless case condemned for failure in his life. Stories from his own school time he offers with a typical humor. Pennac, of course, succeeded in the end. One of his teachers "saved him". He gave him a task to write a novel. And Pennac found his talent.