A Wichita story, now on Catholics Read
The Real Education of TJ Crowley: Coming of Age on the Redline. An Audie Award-winning full-cast audio drama paired with a word-for-word Scriptbook, built for read-and-listen use in classrooms and parish groups.
What this is
A secular coming-of-age story. TJ Crowley is a thirteen-year-old working-class boy in 1968 Wichita who moves from inherited prejudice toward conscience and moral courage. The book is not devotional and is not offered as catechesis. It is young adult historical fiction, offered to Catholic schools for the strength of its story.
The redline the story is named for ran through Wichita. For students here, the setting is their own city, and the history around it is history they can study close to home.
Listed on Catholics Read
On March 17, 2026, TJ Crowley was added to the Catholics Read book list maintained by the Association of Catholic Publishers. Catholics Read promotes selected titles through regular email features and outreach to Catholic leaders and readers in the pews. Dioceses, schools, and parish communities use it to identify titles for instruction and discussion.
Companion classroom materials are available through The Real Education Project.
Why it reaches students
Catholic education has long approached questions of justice through the language of human dignity and responsibility to neighbor. In practice those discussions can stall when they begin at the level of argument.
This project begins with experience. Students hear how people speak and watch situations unfold, then return to those moments in discussion. Teachers introduce moral language after the experience rather than before it. Educators using the format report that students refer back to specific scenes and dialogue, which keeps discussion grounded in a shared reference point.
Because the central character is not Catholic, the work is usable across mixed classrooms. The story does not assume agreement. It asks for attention.
Connection points for Catholic settings
The kit offers these footholds and leaves the teaching to the teacher.
- Open Wide Our Hearts, the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, which names racism as a sin and an enduring call to love.
- Fratelli Tutti, on social friendship across difference.
- The Catechism on the formation of conscience (1783) and on the social conditions required for justice (1935 and 1937).
- Micah 6:8, the Scripture that anchors the story’s close.
What a school receives
Audio drama
Fifteen actors in twenty-four roles, directed by May Wuthrich. Winner of the 2025 Audie Award for Best Young Adult Audiobook. The spirituals are performed by Wichita’s ARISE Ensemble.
Scriptbook edition
The word-for-word script, adapted by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich, printed so students read while they listen. A printed QR code opens audio access. See the Scriptbook edition.
Educator Guide
A free classroom guide with discussion questions, character-mapping and reflection exercises, and Scripture and Catechism quick-picks for Catholic settings. Co-authored with university faculty including Dr. Michael Birzer of Wichita State University. Download it from the Educators page.
Study Companion
A source-grounded interactive tool that gives students and teachers guided research and historical context. Open the Study Companion.
The Faith Listening Circle
Five sessions built on a listen-first pedagogy. In each one, participants follow the printed script while hearing a ten to fifteen minute segment of the drama, mark a courage line, work through small-group prompts grounded in Catholic social teaching, then bring it to the whole group. Each session closes with community discernment and a prayer drawn from Micah 6:8.
Where it fits in the curriculum
- Theology and religion. Conscience formed through TJ’s own turning, and the social conditions that justice requires.
- Social studies. The 1937 federal maps that drew Wichita’s redline, the 1958 Dockum sit-in downtown, and the leadership of Chester Lewis.
- English language arts. Character-driven work on empathy, bias, and the unlearning of inherited prejudice.
Advisory. Recommended for mature teen and adult readers, grades 9 to 12. The audio drama and Scriptbook carry mature themes and historically accurate language, including racial slurs, used in context. The work is intended for guided discussion in classroom, parish, or small-group settings. A full content advisory is available on request.
Recognition
- 2025 Audie Award, Best Young Adult Audiobook.
- IPPY Gold Medal, Outstanding Books of the Year, 2025 Independent Publisher Book Awards. The only audiobook so honored.
- AudioFile Earphones Award.
- Listed on Catholics Read, Association of Catholic Publishers.
The first public listening event was hosted at Holy Savior Catholic Academy in northeast Wichita, in the neighborhood where the story is set.
“TJ Crowley led my students to ask mature, challenging questions about their own communities. One of the best classroom experiences in my 17 years of teaching.”
Amanda Harcus, Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet
“One of the most popular books in my classroom library.”
Dave McIntire, Kansas History Teacher of the Year, Pembroke Hill School
Bring TJ Crowley to your school
Tell us your school, your grade levels, and when you want to teach it. We will send the Educator Guide and a plan that fits your calendar.
Start the conversation Educator materials