True Confessions of Hannah Faith

Year of Miss Agnes – Kirkpatrick Hill

Posted on January 31st, 2007 by hanfaith.
Categories: Book Reviews, General.

I never would have noticed this book, had it not been on my daughter’s reading list for school next year. I purchased it used, and thought I would check it out before reading it to her, and I found myself really enjoying it.

The story follows an Athabascan village in Alaska in the mid 1900s, where the narrator “Fred” attends school with her friends. After a procession of teachers who don’t last long in the wilderness, Miss Agnes shows up and turns the school upside-down with her teaching style. She encourages the kids in their own interests, loves them for who they are (fish smell and all), and manages to teach in the midst of children coming and going as their families needed them.

While the book could have been filled with the sentimentality of an inspiring teacher story, instead it comes off raw and real, as you see the children blossom under her care, and Miss Agnes wrestle with her love for the village, and the emotional need she has to return to her native England. Miss Agnes faced her challenges head on, and in true woman-of-the-wilderness spirit, overcomes her troubles.

2 comments.