Former vice principal wins book award

Former Oak Park High School assistant principal Patricia Kokinos will be featured at Book Expo America from Fri., May 30 to Sun., June 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Kokinos' book, "Angel Park," has won a silver seal in the Nautilus Book Awards.

The book was also named a finalist for Best New Fiction in the inaugural National Indie Excellence Awards, a contest recognizing independent presses and selfpublished books. It was published by iUniverse, where it won Editor's Choice, Publisher's Choice and Reader's Choice awards. Her Nautilus award for "Angel Park" was in the Adult Fiction/Visionary Fiction category. The Nautilus Award is an ongoing national competition in 24 categories celebrating literary contributions to positive social change, spiritual growth, conscious living, and wellness and leadership.

Kokinos wrote "Angel Park" as a "wakeup call" about the crisis facing public schools. "The school system is paralyzed by bureaucracy, structural racism, power politics, blind tradition and self-serving agendas. I hope that 'Angel Park' will engage readers in an emotional way and help them understand the need not merely for school reform but for reinvention of the entire system."