The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill

I'm partial to fiction books about Alaska because my big brother lives there, and was a bush teacher. Bush teachers know how to teach multi-grade classes in small, remote towns and villages, the only access being small airplanes in the winter, and boats if they are near the water.

In Kirkpatrick Hill's novel,  "The Year of Miss Agnes," Fred and the other kids of the Athabacan village get, yet again, another new teacher. But this one is different. She does not complain about the smell of fish and she tosses out old textbooks! She talks as if all the kids could be scientists and doctors if they wanted.  When you get a great teacher, you never forget, right? Ms Hill has written about just such a teacher, and a time in Alaska when everything was on the verge of change. I zipped through the book, not just because it was about Alaska, but because it was about a year of change and growth and fun.

Reed Reads Score: 4