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It's 1948 and ten-year-old Fred has just watched her teacher leave another in a long line of teachers who have left the village because the smell of fish was too strong, the way of life too hard. Will another teacher come to the small Athabascan village on the Koyukuk River to teach Fred and her friends in the one-room schoolhouse? Will she stay, or will she hate the smell of fish, too?
Fred doesn't know what to make of Miss Agnes Sutterfield. She sure is a strange one. No other teacher throws away old textbooks and reads Greek myths and Robin Hood. No other teacher plays opera recordings, talks about "hairy os," and Athabascan kids becoming doctors or scientists. No other teacher ever said Fred's deaf older sister should come to school, too. And no other teacher ever, ever told the kids they were each good at something. Maybe it's because Miss Agnes can't smell anything, let alone fish, that things seem to be all right. But then Miss Agnes says she's homesick and will go back to England at the end of the year. Fred knows what this is about: Just when things seem to be good, things go back to being the same.
How Fred and her friends grow with Miss Agnes is the heart of this story, told with much humor and warmth by Fred herself This is a story about Alaska, about the old ways and the new, about pride. And it's a story about a great teacher who opens a door to the world where, once you go through, nothing is ever the same again.
Set in rural, post World War II Alaska, this book tells a heart-warming story of the positive changes set in motion by a caring and skillful teacher. The one-room school has had a succession of temporary teachers who start out fresh and cheery and leave in disgust soon thereafter from the children's behavior or the ever-present smell of the fish they eat. Then, Miss Agnes comes, and the children can tell at once that she is different. For one thing, she doesn't start out smiling. But, by book's end everyone is smiling--for they've had the rare and special privilege of being in the presence of a teacher who knows what good things there are to learn. She also knows how best to communicate those things to the whole class and to the individuals. If the tone of this book at times seems preachy, it's balanced by the honest and authentic voice of the narrator, young Fred (short for Frederika,) a native student who guides readers as patiently through the intricacies of Athabascan life as Miss Agnes guides the children through their studies. Dedicated to Sylvia Ashton-Warner, a pioneer of modern educational thought, this book is indeed a tribute to good teaching--wherever it is found. This book would be an excellent addition to classes for teachers in training, but kids will enjoy it, too. It's a good story with a happy ending. 2000, Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster,
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