The Year of Miss Agnes

Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming!
Review: The Year of Miss Agnes is a heartwarming tale of children in an Alaskan Village named Koyukuk. Fred (short for Fredrika) tells of the trouble her village has in keeping teachers in their small school. Year after year, the teachers leave for one reason or another, which the children believe is some fault of their own. Until the year Miss Agnes arrives and teaches the children in a new and interesting way. Everyone, children and adults included learn valuable lessons from Miss Agnes. The question is, will she stay longer than the others?
This book is written by Kirkpatrick Hill, an author who is a school teacher in the Alaskan "bush". She chooses appropriate vocabulary related to the life they live. She highlights the differences in their culture through the eyes of a child. Most children will be amazed at the responsibilities the children in this book embrace. I think this book would be wonderful for parent and child or teacher and child to read together and discuss. The language is simple, and the Indian words are described in context. Overall, an excellent book to read, discuss and enjoy. I can't wait to read another of Kirkpatrick Hill's books.

Rating:
Summary: The Year of Miss. Afnes
Review: The Year of Miss Agnes
Kirkpatrick Hill
©2000, Margaret K. McElderry Books
ISBN 0-689-82933-7
$16.00

Kirkpatrick Hill was raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. She has been a elementary teacher for more than thirty years. She is also the author of Toughboy and Sister and Winter Camp. Hill has six children and three grandchildren. This is her first Bluebonnet Nominee.
The Year of Miss. Agnes is a standard size intermediate book with no pictures or maps. The wording that Hill uses helps the reader get a mental picture of what the story is about.
The story takes place in 1948 in a small Athabascan village on the Koyukuk River. The story is told by ten-year-old Fred (Frederika) who lives with her mother, her deaf sister, Bokko, and is close to her grandparents. Her father died when she was younger. All of the teachers that taught at that school left and never came back. Miss. Agnes taught in a one-room schoolhouse and enlightened children of all ages to read, write, spell, learn math and history, and be able to draw. She also taught Bokko how to talk and understand people.
By the end of the story the whole class, Fred and Bokko's mom were able to understand Bokko and respond to her.

Rating:
Summary: The Year of Miss Agnes
Review: We all rate this book a 1 star, because it was sort of interesting. It was mainly boring. ALl that occured was teaching and learning. There were not a lot of exciting parts in the story. Although it was in Alaska it still wasn't very adventurous.The characters were not described very well.