“Be the person you want your children to become,” writes innovative and award-winning teacher Rafe Esquith among other poignant life lessons for parents in his latest book, “Lighting Their Fires.”

Esquith and seven of his current fifth-grade students from the Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Los Angeles will come to Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables) on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. Esquith will discuss his “Lighting Their Fires” and sign copies as well.

In addition, the seven members of the Hobart Shakespeareans, as Esquith’s students are known, will perform. Previously the group has opened for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and appeared at the Globe Theater in London. “The kids are the story,” said Esquith in a phone interview Sept. 8, showing the humility he espouses in Chapter 8.

You don’t want to miss this one but get to Books & Books early on Sept. 17. At a similar event last month at a bookstore in New Mexico, Esquith said a crowd of more than 500 showed up.

A parent himself of a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer and computer whiz, Esquith said he wrote “Lighting Their Fires” to answer frustrated parents questions. “It’s a cook book full of recipes for parents,” explained Esquith.

In “Lighting Their Fires,” Esquith shows that children aren’t born extraordinary; they become that way as a result of parents and teachers who instill values that serve them not just in school, but for the rest of their lives. Framed by a class trip to a LA Dodgers game, “Lighting Their Fires” moves inning by inning through concepts that help children build character and develop enriching lives. Esquith shows how parents can equip their kids with all the tools they need to find success and have fun in the process. “Lighting Their Fires” is that rarest of education books: one that explains not just how to make our children great students, but how to make them thoughtful and honorable people.

Among the many character-building concepts Esquith writes about: Punctuality, the importance of reading and music, consideration for others, consequences, decision making, patience, selflessness and handling failure.

Esquith has been teaching at Hobart, the nation’s second largest elementary school, since 1981. Most of the school's 2,000 students come from immigrant Central American and Korean families. According to a 2005 report on National Public Radio, 90 percent of his students were living below the poverty level, and all were from immigrant families, with none speaking English as a first language.

Many of Esquith's students voluntarily start class at 6:30 a.m., two hours before the rest of the school's students and often stay as late as 6 p.m.

Esquith says that while just one of three Hobart students complete high school, all his fifth-grade students ultimately are graduated from college. His students consistently score in the top 5 to 10 percent of the country in standardized tests.

Esquith’s teaching honors include the 1992 Disney National Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, a Sigma Beta Delta Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University, Oprah Winfrey’s $100,000 "Use Your Life Award", Parents Magazine’s "As You Grow Award", National Medal of Arts, and Esquith was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire.