The Teacher's Funeral

I had already read this book with my boys before I read the reviews and was very suprised as we thought the story was a hoot from start to finish. The humour was fantastic and references to other novels such as Treasure Island (which we had read aloud during the winter) kept us all on our toes. Keep in mind this is exactly what it says on the cover, a comedy, not a historical novel. This is a perfect read aloud as kids and adults will love the comments about school being up hill both ways "As it was in those days." We have read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, The Yearling, as well as freshly written novels about farming communities such as Dust. All fabulous in their own right and this one fits right up there with these. My three boys who are 12, 10 and 8 loved to make connections with the exagerated stories told to them by both their grandfathers and the hardships, and adventures of their rural childhoods. I do think this is best read aloud as the humour is contagious, and some kids reading this to themselves might not hear the humour in their heads, but give it a try!

This book was so funny, my son and I had a wonderful time reading it. I would read aloud, and could hear my husband in the next room laughing. It was great.

The title alone ("A Teacher's Funeral") may induce a number of school-weary kids to pick this book up, what with the demise of teachers being a subject of schoolyard songs even when I was a kid. The book is, however, the opposite of mean-spirited: it is a sympathetic, almost hymn-like story of rural Indiana at the turn of the 20th century. The plot is simple: after the switch-happy Miss Myrt shuffles off this mortal coil, Tansy (the narrator Russell's older sister) becomes teacher to a rag-tag bunch of kids. Oh the horror! My own 11-year-old's eyes grew wide at the idea of being under the thumb of a sibling all day long. To buoy up the narrative there are a lot of what you might call "hijinks" - setting the school privy on fire, a buggy accident in which an old maid aunt ends up with her skirts around her head, that sort of thing. I thought at first this might all be too mild for my adventure and action-seeking son. But we read it out loud to each other, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Richard Peck goes for a kind of Mark Twain vibe - folksy, humorous, and above all affectionate. He really likes his characters, even when he is making light of them. Peck's genius as a writer comes not from a screenplay-like imagination (he's not all plot twists and peril) but from his ability to convey strong and interesting characters. Everyone - even old Aunt Maud - turns out to have hidden depths, even though the book is really very very funny (!). Sorta makes me wish Peck would try his hand at something for the over-30 crowd. He's a wonderful writer and the book is a great addition to the recent literature for older kids.

After his school teacher dies just before the start of school, Russell Culver hopes his forlorn one-room Indiana schoolhouse will close forever. Tragically for him, not only is a new school marm hired, it's his overbearing, spatula-wielding older sister, Tansy, who is bent on Russell fly right. Peck once again piggybacks us back in time on a narrative full of outrageous hyperbole and subtle humor.

Richard Peck treats us with another down-home tale from the midwest. This one takes place exactly one century ago, in 1904 Indiana, "when automobiles began to burn up the rural byways. The year airships like boxkites began to darken the skies, though they hadn't found our patch of sky yet." Russell Culver's sentiments run from ecstasy to despair when he learns that dreadful Miss Myrt, the schoolteacher, has succumbed to a sudden heart attack just before the beginning of the school year. No sooner is Miss Myrt laid to rest in the Balm of Gilead Cemetary than it becomes clear that her successor is going to be Russell's seventeen-year-old sister, Tansy, and all hope for closing the "Jailhouse of School" is dashed. Miss Tansy proves to be a formidible and adept new schoolmarm, and Russell's dreams of escaping to the wheatfields of the Dakotas are the only thing that keep him sane. She is determined to prove herself worthy of a preliminary teaching credential and tolerates none of the hijinks that her brother and his pals might attempt to put in her way. There is no shortage of suitors for the pert young teacher in these rural parts. Most promising is Eugene Hammond, a city slicker from Terra Haute who makes his entrance into town crashing his eight-cylinder "Bullet No. 2" racing car with the Culver family's buggy, sending the spinster Aunt Maud into a ditch. Mr. Hammond subsequently showers lavish gifts for the classroom upon Miss Tansy, all of which are inscribed, "Compliments of The Overland Automobile Company; Terra Haute--Indianapolis." In the backdrop of this hilarious saga is the understated wisdom of O.C. Culver, Russell's Dad, a widower, who always seems to have a greater understanding of what is going on than his fifteen-year-old son had ever suspected. His warmth and depth of character is reminiscent of Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." This is a warm and refreshing read that will make you laugh out loud. Richard Peck is such a thorough researcher of the time period about which he writes that you can be assured that all the details, sentiments and nuances are authentic.