In The Spotlight: Jim Westcot

Jim and his wife, Sue, moved into the neighborhood in 1997. He lives at 940 Winona Boulevard and has the good fortune to live next to Mike and Carol Ratigan.

They have two boys, Andrew and Jack. Andrew is a sophomore and Jack is in sixth grade. Sue teaches fourth grade at Durand Eastman in East Irondequoit. Jim taught for fifteen years as a fifth and sixth grade special education teacher until pursuing a career in educational writing and children’s fiction.

Currently, Jim works with education publishers writing K-6 classroom instructional materials. He just finished a book in a geography series for middle school aged students for a publisher called Mason Crest. REA (Research and Educational Association) hired Jim to write a 336 page manual for teachers in Texas seeking Special Education certification.

Jim wrote a children’s book called The Gift, a specialized book for struggling readers in fourth through seventh grades. The Gift is in a series that recently won an Academic Choice Award.
Also, Jim writes on a small team that creates a children’s book series for a start-up in Annapolis, Maryland called the JNPproject.

Jim recently hosted a  book launch party for Jack’s Tales, the first book in his series for reluctant readers. It was at  I- Square on February 5th at 4:00.