Meester Bart op zijn best is a Dutch nonfiction collection of quotes and columns by Bart Ongering. Bart is a teacher at a high school and writes about a broad range of topics. In this collection he really packs a punch: from losing family members to cancer, to teenage pregnancy, from poverty to the refugee crisis: a lot of important societal topics get their place in this book.

His writing style is light and easy to understand and really pulls you in; there's a reason why his columns are so loved and his page has so many likes on Facebook. As the book is really a collection of different quotes and columns that he wrote previously, there really isn't an overarching 'clue' to the book, I guess. We can draw general lessons from it though. Bart is clearly anti-racist, anti-discrimination on any level and tries to be as accepting and supportive of his pupils as he possibly can. He tells us about the good things and the bad, in a way that shows us that everybody goes through and sees a lot of bad stuff happen over the course of their lives, but all of that rarely outweighs the good.

I would really recommend this book to anyone who likes books with short chapters, just to read a bit every time you pick it up, but also to people looking into diversity but not knowing where to start. Unfortunately, this collection hasn't been translated (yet?), so it's only available in Dutch for now. So, Dutchies: get on this!

Trigger warnings: I can't think of specific triggering things, because I think he deals with heavy topics very eloquently, but just be warned if you are a sensitive person.

I gave Meester Bart op zijn best 5 out of 5 stars.