The Teacher's Funeral, A Comedy in Three Parts, by Richard Peck

Set in rural Indiana in the 1900's, this historical fiction book tells the story of a one room school house and the eight children who attend school there against their will. After the current school teacher dies at the ripe young age of 42, Russell Culver thinks his schooling is over, and makes his plan to head to the Dakotas. Little does he know the next school teacher is close at hand...closer than he thinks. When his mean-spirited older sister is named the new school teacher, his plans to leave home accelerate. Through the help of his sister, a few friends and his father, Russell learns that an education might not be such a bad thing after all.

Richard Peck expertly weaves history with fiction in this believable account of rural Indiana farm life in the early 1900's. As the author of more than 30 books, many of which are multiple award winners, Peck has surely become a legend in this genre. The introduction of the automobile is woven seamlessly into the storyline, as well as how life in a one room school room really was. The characters all act appropriate for the time period, and today's young reader might find it hard to believe that school teachers actually whipped their students in class for misbehaving, but the older readers will confirm this occurrence as true to the time period. Peck does an impeccable job of capturing the language of uneducated children running barefoot in the town, and by using the characters in the book to become famous characters in real life at the end of the book, Peck artfully blends fact and fiction. This book is appropriate for readers in the 4th-8th grade.

What I loved most about this book, is that I started out bored by it. What in the world would I be able to learn from a rural town in Indiana in the 1900's? I was turning pages quicker than I ever would have thought possible, in a manner of a few chapters. This was my first book to read from Peck, and I quickly became a fan! The characters are all so different, and believable, and funny, and silly all at the same time. I believe this book would have made an excellent television series, much like the Beverly Hillbillies or Gunsmoke did. Told through the eyes of a fifteen year old farm boy, the story comes alive by Peck's dialogue and detail. I spent a few summers on my grandparents' farm, and I remember the snakes and vultures my cousins and I encountered. We also had our share of run-ins with leeches while swimming in the creek. This book brought back fond memories of my farm-filled summers.

Key Words
cockle burs, writhing, gaped, banshee, drone, cacophony, charred, recitation, elocution, carcasses, desolation,