{"product_id":"2940169750553","title":"It Takes a School: The Extraordinary Story of an American School in the World's #1 Failed State","description":"\u003cp\u003eA story of David and Goliath proportions, how an American hedge fund manager created a unique school in Somaliland whose students, against all odds, have come to achieve success beyond anyone¿s wildest dreams\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJonathan Starr is not your traditional do-gooder, and in 2009, when he decided to found Abaarso, a secondary school in Somaliland, the choice seemed crazy to even his closest friends. Why, they wondered, would he turn down a life of relative luxury to relocate to an armed compound in a breakaway region of the world¿s #1 failed state? To achieve his mission, Starr would have to overcome profound cultural differences, broken promises, and threats to his safety and that of his staff. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt Takes a School\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of how an abstract vision became a transformative reality, as Starr set out to build a school in a place forgotten by the world. It is the story of a skeptical and clan-based society learning to give way to trust. And it is the story of the students themselves, including a boy from a family of nomads who took off on his own in search of an education and a girl who waged a hunger strike in order to convince her strict parents to send her to Abaarso.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbaarso has placed forty graduates and counting in American universities, from Harvard to MIT, and sends Somaliland a clear message: its children can compete with anyone in the world. Now the initial question Starr was asked demands another: ¿If such a success can happen in an unrecognized breakaway region of Somalia, can it not happen anywhere?¿\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Audio, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47098114081008,"sku":"2940169750553","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169750553_p0.jpg?v=1769899860","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169750553","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}