Local author Patricia Kokinos will be the special guest at the Spring Educators Reception on Saturday, April 26, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4820 Telephone Road. She will be discussing and signing her award-winning novel, Angel Park, an inside story about the forces stifling our schools.

Educators around the country are calling Angel Park "one of the most honest and compelling books on education I've ever read," and "more truth than fiction . . . a true picture of what is happening to education across America."

"Despite massive changes in society over the past 30 years, our school systems are still burdened with a 'factory model' of organization," said Kokinos. "Large, impersonal systems that 'manufacture' American citizens are out of step with the immediate, personalized, and responsive world that has grown up around the Internet. People are different now, our interactions are more informal, information is readily available, and we need to modernize the structure of schools to meet this new reality."

The author's ideas are offered in greater detail on a new website she has just launched around the theme "Changing the Schools Can Change the World." Information about the latest ideas in school reform and links to numerous sites that demonstrate the value of smaller, more personalized, more responsive school environments are available from the author's site, www.changetheschools.com.

Educators who attend the Spring Reception at the Ventura Barnes & Noble on April 26 th will be eligible to win a $500 gift card as well as receive special discounts on books, CDs, and DVDs. Librarians, Literacy Coaches, Guidance Counselors, and Media Specialists are particularly invited to attend, as are parents involved in Home Schooling. Further information is available from the store at 805.339-0990.

"People within the educational system know very well the frustrations of battling a huge bureaucracy," said Kokinos. "The absurdity of trying to deal with students in a meaningful way while juggling power politics, structural racism, blind tradition and self-serving agendas is what Angel Park is all about." The heroine solves a philosophical mystery to achieve her own startling transformation, and then points the way to the transformation that schools and America need to make as well.

A national finalist for Book of the Year in Literary Fiction, Angel Park has also been awarded Editors Choice, Publishers Choice and Readers Choice awards by iUniverse. Kokinos was recently honored with an IRWIN award by Book Publicists of Southern California in the Best Fiction category. Her first foreign translation will be in Turkish by arrangement with New Human Publishers in Istanbul.

Kokinos will be presenting her book at the LA Times Book Festival on Sunday, April 27 th, signing copies at the Author's Coalition booth from 1 to 2 p.m. and at the Book Publicists of Southern California booth the rest of the day. Her book will also appear at three locations during the national Book Expo America, which will be held in Los Angeles this year, May 30-June 1 st at the LA Convention Center.