The Literacy Bridge - Large Print - The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy In Three Parts [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Richard Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2005 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: The Literacy Bridge - Large Print

A New York Times Bestselling Author
A Newbery Medal and Honor-winning Author
Recipient of the National Humanities Medal
A Two-Time National Book Award Finalist

Richard Peck creates a whole world of folksy, one-of-a-kind characters in his funniest novel yet. There will be no forgetting Russell, his new teacher, and all the inmates of Hominy Ridge School.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 6 Up–C'mon back to rural Indiana in 1904 and join 15-year-old Russell, whose summer ends with the unexpected death of old Miss Myrt Arbuckle. Russell and his younger brother are thrilled because just maybe the school board will decide to stop its foolishness and tear down the one-room schoolhouse. Surely it doesn't pay to hire a new teacher for the six students who attend. But to his utter horror, one is hired and it's none other than his extremely bossy older sister, even though she still has a year left of high school herself. Tansy takes to teaching with vigor and manages to circumvent all of the high jinx and calamities that threaten to undermine her authority, such as an accidental fire in the privy and a puff adder in her desk drawer. Peck expertly evokes humor and colloquial speech and mores with such sentences as "The water wasn't crotch-deep on a dwarf at that point," and "She had a snout on her long enough to drink water down a crawdad hole." Even readers who are blasé about current technological advances will be as excited as Russell is when he sees the steel Case Agitator threshing machine down from Wisconsin on its once-yearly exhibit, or the Overland Automobile Company's Bullet No. 2 racing car that can travel a mile in an unheard-of 43 seconds. Another gem from Peck–and a fabulous lead-in to titles such as Olive Burns's Cold Sassy Tree (Houghton, 1984).–Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 5-8. Peck's droll humor, so familiar to fans of A Long Way from Chicago (1999) and A Year down Yonder (2000), lights up his latest book set in the rural Midwest. Russell Culver's narration transports readers back to 1904, when he was 15 years old and still in eighth grade at Hominy Ridge School, "an out-of-date, unimproved, one-room country schoolhouse in the backwoodsiest corner of Indiana." Living on a farm with his father, big sister, Tansy, and little brother, Lloyd, he dreams of hopping a freight train for the Dakotas. When the local teacher dies, Russell's sister takes over her position. This alarming development calls for action and even retaliation, but Russell finds Tansy more than a match for his mischief, pranks, and ill-considered plans. Peck is in his element here. The narrator's adult voice comes through as in his recollection of walking to school: "It was only about a mile, and uphill both ways, as the road to school always was back then." In every other way, though, Russell seems no great distance in time from his experiences in the story, so vivid is the telling of every event, conversation, and emotion. Best of all, the dry wit and unpretentious tone make the story's events comical, its characters memorable, and its conclusion unexpectedly moving. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 226 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (August 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786277505
• ISBN-13: 978-0786277506
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,405,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Peck has written over twenty novels, and in the process has become one of America's most highly respected writers for young adults. A versatile writer, he is beloved by middle graders as well as young adults for his mysteries and coming-of-age novels. He now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he spends a great deal of time traveling around the country attending speaking engagements at conferences, schools and libraries...Mr. Peck has won a number of major awards for the body of his work, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award from School Library Journal, the National Council of Teachers of English/ALAN Award, and the 1991 Medallion from the University of Southern Mississippi. Virtually every publication and association in the field of children s literature has recommended his books, including Mystery Writers of America which twice gave him their Edgar Allan Poe Award. Dial Books for Young Readers is honored to welcome Richard Peck to its list with Lost in Cyberspace and its sequel The Great Interactive Dream Machine...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "You could have heard a bee belch." *, October 20, 2004

By 

C. J. Black (Fort Collins, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts (Hardcover)

The vernacular, lifestyle, and setting of rural Hoosier-land a century ago along with Richard Peck's flourish with hyperbole makes Russell Culver's reminiscences as an adolescent simply irresistable. I'm a sucker for these American heartland tales of yesteryear. Peck's use of history and artifacts of the period are mesmirizing (e.g. Karo Syrup cans for lunchpails); his description of the countryside, vivid. The reader sees, smells, tastes, and hears everthing as Russell and his brother Lloyd walk down Hog Scald Road. The book stuck like flypaper in my hands--I could scarcely put it down in 2 days of reading.

The humor is uproarious--you'll find yourself spontaneously erupting into loud guffaws! The storytelling is so well-crafted--so seamless; the writing, graceful and balanced. It will be savored by avid children's literature readers. Interpersed in the hilarity with poignancy is the low-key, loving guidance of Russell's father as well as his sister Tansy's high expectation and insistance that he achieve versus allow his foibles to become an excuse in the future for failure by his little brother. You will experience tears from laughter; tears from being moved by goodness and love.

And the ending--it's as fine a one as is in N. Babbit's Tuck Everlasting. ...the highest praise by me--it's just superb!

Whatever will the Newberry Committee do next year? Do they dare recognize Mr. Peck yet a 3rd time for his empassioned flair for writing these wise yarns about our country's rural life in 1st half of the 20th century? If not, then Mr. Peck earns my vote to join the late Scott O'Dell as a recipient of the Hans Christian Anderson Author Medal. He is past due.

Mr. Peck has dedicated The Teacher's Funeral to the memory of his parents. I can only begin to appreciate how heartfelt and profound the legacy of their lives have been for him; yet, by the end of the story, I know for certain how proud they would be!

Thank you, Mr. Peck, for all those immemorable characters like Aunt Fanny Hemline and the Tarboxes.

* page 40, "A Mess of Bad Puppies," The Teacher's Funeral, by Richard Peck

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dead educators, March 3, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts (Hardcover)

Here is a story told to me secondhand. Once at an official gathering of hoity-toity children's authors and the cream of the librarian crop, Mr. Richard Peck was seated at the table of a young enthusiastic librarian of young adults. Mr. Peck (whose curse in life is to be mistaken for fellow children's writer Robert Newton Peck everywhere he goes) was under the distinct impression that his books were read by reluctant readers everywhere. The librarian (who knew exactly who Mr. Richard Peck was) took great pains to explain to the author that, in fact, reluctant readers tend to avoid titles like, "The River Between Us" and "Fair Weather". Peck was astounded by that news. After all, he was the author of the wonderful "A Long Was From Chicago" and "A Year Down Yonder". Funny novels that take place in America's heartland and leave the audience wanting more. But do kids really read these books? Well, we're about to find out. With "The Teacher's Funeral", Peck has returned to what he does best. Tell amusing stories from a kid's perspective in what some might call a "simpler time". Even if you can't stand the author's dour forays into historical fiction, you'll have to admit that titles like this one really show off Peck's funny side.

As first sentences go, it's hard to beat this one: "If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it". And we're off! When Russell and Lloyd find out in August of 1904 that mean old Miss Myrt Arbuckle is pushing up the daisies and not about to start another year in their ramshackle old schoolhouse, they are nearly beside themselves with joy. Surely the school board will be unable to find a proper substitute in time, right? Surely that means that Russell can fulfill his dream of running away to the Dakotas to work on their gorgeous steel threshing machines, right? Not so much. Enter Tansy. She's Lloyd and Russell's older sister who's been doling out their meals and whoppings ever since their mother died. She's rough and tough and before you know it she's gotten herself hired as the new teacher. Leaving, I might add, Russell and Lloyd in agony. They are LIVING with their teacher now. So Russell schemes to escape his fate, the students of the class learn far more than they'd expect, and not one but three suitors all start vying for Tansy's hand. It's a year that turns out to be anything but dull.

Peck's grasp of Indiana turn-of-the-century vernacular is unbeatable. In "The Teacher's Funeral" he's really at the top of his form. Adeptly, the author combines a couple mysteries here and there with humor, suspense, and a whole heaping helpful of historical facts. Want to know what a 1904 racing car looked like? Or where most Indiana residents got their toilet paper? It's all here, baby. In fact, the historical notes in this book are so slyly worked in that kids may often find themselves scratching their heads in confusion. Russell mentions that if Tansy got married then she would have to quit teaching. There isn't any debate about this or even a challenge to it. And here I was, a 26-year-old reader, wondering why it was the case. It took me an embarrasingly long time to remember that married women once did not work, under any circumstances.

Will kids like this puppy, though? I think so. But only some. Really, I suspect that "The Teacher's Funeral" is one of those books that would work best if it's read aloud to a class of kids, one chapter a day. As for those kids that are assigned it, I doubt they'll hate it on the same level that they come to hate "Shabanu" or "Kira-Kira". Still, this is pleasurable reading. Not something that should be assigned. In short, some kids will definitely enjoy the practical jokes and lovable characters that pop up in this puppy. For others, it may strike them as a deadly dull affair. But I liked it and I've little doubt that you'll like it too. I represents a fine frolicksome novel that'll have a cadre of fans cheering for it as the years go by. A winner.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm and funny!, October 17, 2004

By 

Bibliotekaria (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts (Hardcover)

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.