The Year of Miss Agnes [book review]

• Main Author: Wadley, Laura;
• Other Authors: Hill, Kirkpatrick;
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Book review; Fiction; Contemporary realistic fiction; Books > Reviews; Teachers > Juvenile fiction; Schools > Juvenile fiction; Self-esteem in children > Juvenile fiction; Commitment (Psychology) > Juvenile fiction; Individuality > Juvenile fiction; Athapascan Indians > Juvenile fiction; Indians of North America > Alaska > Juvenile fiction; Alaska > Juvenile fiction; Ashton; Athabascan; Alaska
• Online Access: http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CBPR/id/1254

Hill, Kirkpatrick. The Year of Miss Agnes. Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-689-82933-7. $16.00. 128 pp. A 5+ FI Reviewed by Laura Wadley The one-room school in a small Athabascan village sees a succession of teachers come and go, overcome by the cold, the smell, and the loneliness. When Miss Agnes arrives, no one expects her to stay either, but she does. She teaches the children reading, writing, arithmetic, opera, geography, and sign language as they have never been taught before. Hill wrote this novel in homage to Sylvia Ashton Warner and all other remarkable teachers. The Year of Miss Agnes is well told, with evocative descriptions of Alaskan bush life and of the Athabascan people. Better-suited for an adult audience, who will have a greater appreciation for the beauties of landscape and personality in this volume than the children for whom it was written, The Year of Miss Agnes might still serve as a good read-aloud and discussion book. 115 p. 22 cm. Children's Book and Play Review, March / April 2001