An inside account of the state of education in America, from an award-winning journalist who spent a year attending a Minnesota public high school. In the wake of the disaster at Columbine, one question haunted America: What's going on in our suburban high schools? Award-winning journalist Elinor Burkett went back to school in suburban Minneapolis to find out. For nine months -- from the opening pep rally through graduation -- she attended classes, hung out with students, sat in on teacher gripe sessions, and interviewed both parents and administrators. With a novelist's eye, she takes readers behind closed doors, revealing a world of mixed messages, manufactured myths, and political hype. Another Planet offers an insider's view of the lives of suburban teenagers, the plight of the nation's teachers, and the state of American education.