The Year of Miss Agnes

I’ve lived in Alaska most of my life and when I stumbled upon this book from Kirkpatrick Hill, I was so excited to read it and it didn’t disappoint. The story is well written, I the story weaves in the local people and culture well including the time frame this takes place. It’s light, special and great for elementary level kids. I ended up buying her other books and just finished Bo at Ballard creek, another lovely book.

I had to read this book for one of my early childhood classes. I absoulutly loved reading the story. I think so much information on teaching can be gained from some of the habits that Miss Agnes had. She shows her true love for the job and the children. It inspires me to be a better teacher!

The Year of Miss AgnesKirkpatrick Hill ©2000, Margaret K. McElderry BooksISBN 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.

Miss Agnes is a delightful combination of Lucy Maude Montgomery's Miss Stacy and real-life teacher Sylvia Ashton-Warner. She challenges her students to be the best they can be in whatever life they choose for themselves; and to consider looking beyond their own experiences when making life choices. While Hill directs this message towards young people in rural areas, it is a pertinent moral for children in any geographical region.I did not have the sense that Hill condemed or slighted "normal" teaching, however that may be defined. Rather she wrote a description of a teacher who took the students as they came and met their individual needs. While Miss Agnes sets aside Dick and Jane, she does share a selection of "great" works with the children. Miss Agnes acknowledges that there are many "right" ways of communicating. The trick is to know when colloquialism is acceptable and when it might be more appropriate to use formal language. Hill writes this book in the voice of a 10-year-old girl. In keeping with this voice, some aspects of the culture are explained while others are mentioned without explanation. This is an effective device. It permits the reader to understand the story at hand. While it might be argued that the book could contain more factual information, this would slow down the action of the story and dissuade some readers.

In 1948, Fred (short for Frederika) and the other children of the Athabascan village on the Koyukuk River wait for the arrival of their new school teacher. They've had many teachers over the years, in their little one room schoolhouse, but none lasted very long. Life was just too hard. Right from the start Miss Agnes Sutterfield is different. She throws out all the old textbooks and puts up maps and timelines and pictures of the world. She plays opera records and reads Robin Hood and Greek mythology to her students. She teaches them creative writing and talks to them about growing up and becoming doctors or scientists. Miss Agnes even insists that Fred's deaf sister Bokko come to school for the first time and orders books about signing and soon the entire class has learned to signed. But her most important and lasting gift to the village, is the love of learning. Just as everything seems so good, the school year comes to an end and Miss Agnes tells the class that she's homesick and going back to England..... Kirkpatrick Hill has crafted a gentle story, full of great characters and vivid scenes, that will draw youngsters in and transport them back to a very different time and culture in the Alaskan "bush". Miss Agnes came to this closed off village and its "old ways" and opened up her students lives to the great wide world, full of many possibilities. This is a wonderful story that's perfect for kids 9-12, and told with great insight, wisdom and humor.