My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska 1881 (Dear America Series) [Hardcover]

Jim Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

In the late 1870s, many young teachers traveled West to earn money and make a new life for themselves, despite the schools being inadequate at best. Some returned home, unable to endure the hardships of prairie life, but others were more committed to their work. Sarah Jane Price stayed, braving the rough conditions of the West. Written by Newbery Honor Author Jim Murphy, this is Sarah Jane Price's story.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Sarah Jane Price, 14, does not want to leave Broken Bow, NE. Her father, the town's teacher, has recently died and she wants to stay near his grave. The modest amount of money that he left her is rapidly dwindling and soon she will not be able to pay for her room and board at Miss Kizer's boarding house. Fully aware of Sarah's financial problems, Miss Kizer decides to send her to the Orphan Girls Asylum in Grand Island. The teen knows that she needs to earn her keep, and, despite opposition from some of the townspeople, she is given the opportunity to take her father's place in the classroom. She faces many challenges, including the schoolhouse, itself, an abandoned soddy; unruly children; and lack of confidence from many adults. In addition, Miss Kizer and Reverend Lauter, the traveling preacher, disapprove of her decision, seeing it as defiance of their authority. Despite these problems, Sarah proves that she is an exceptional teacher. This diary brings to life the problems and day-to-day activities of an educator while also providing a glimpse into life in Nebraska during the late 1880s.

Lana Miles, Duchesne Academy, Houston, TX

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. This addition to the Dear America series reconstructs the adventures of a nineteenth-century Nebraska teacher. When Sarah Jane's father dies of diphtheria, orphaning her at the age of 12, some folks want to send her to an orphanage. But Sarah Jane is reluctant to leave the home that she shared with her father, and when she finds out that the orphanage is actually a workhouse, she's determined to stay in Broken Bow. Before he died, Sarah Jane's father was the town teacher, so Sarah Jane presents herself as 16 and takes over her father's job. The plot isn't particularly realistic, but readers will enjoy the wish fulfillment of a preteen becoming a teacher, and fans of prairie tales will find all the usual elements--from sod houses and cow chip fuel to a blinding blizzard. The fictional epilogue may be a bit confusing; the historical notes and photos are informative. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; 1ST edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590438107
• ISBN-13: 978-0590438100
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Murphy began his career in children's books as an editor, but managed to escape to become a writer, entering a life of personal and creative happiness and enduring financial uncertainty. He's convinced that the latter keeps him coming back to his computer to write every day and feels that a sense of impending doom is the doorway to creativity. He has never counted the number of books he's published (feeling the time and energy is better spent doing research and writing) but guesses that he has over thirty books to his credit. Jim's work has been honored with numerous awards, including two American Llibrary Association Newbery Honor Book Awards, an ALA Robert F. Sibert Award and Sibert Honor Book Award, three National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Awards, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and a BG/HB Honor Book Award, two SCBWI Golden Kite Awards, and been a finalist for the National Book Award. Recently, he was given the ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award for "his significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An example of semi-historical fiction, October 24, 2004

By 

amazon3131 "amazon3131" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska 1881 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

Have you read a book titled _The Gutenberg Elegies_? It's about the difficulties that modern students have with grasping older literature. The reason for this is essentially that the world has changed so much in the last century that what was once common knowledge (farming, for example) is no longer common, and the once ubiquitous (and entirely Western) social code is no longer uniform.

As a result, characters from older books seem -- well, the usual student reaction to authentic period literature is "I just don't get it." It's not that the words are too hard; we just "don't get" the motivations. Seeing characters act inside narrower cultural norms -- unable to rise above family and societal demands -- is as strange to the modern TV generation as a non-Western story might have been to a 19th century reader.

In this situation, _My Face to the Wind_ represents the compromise position. The author goes to some trouble to present a physical and political setting that is historically accurate, but the key characters themselves have been "updated" to conform somewhat more to modern sensibilities.

For example, the central character is clearly an educated and well-brought-up 14-year-old, but she transgresses the social code when she directly asks the boarding house owner about her romantic past -- and even follows up with detailed inquiry when the older woman tries to deflect the issue.

Anyone familiar with the pre-Industrial Revolution social code realizes this would have been considered insupportably rude -- grounds for a serious scolding for "impertinence" at minimum -- but it works with modern students, because they have no idea that this was considered extremely bad behavior at the time.

The other problem that this work suffers from is the presentation as a "diary." Generally, the writing style of a diary is quite difference from a narrative work; it's more internal and reflective and self-referential. One includes in a diary things that one wouldn't include in a narrative account, and vice versa. Perhaps more importantly, one omits from a diary external events and details which are critical to a narrative. I think that this book would work better as a series of letters; the epistolary (letter-writing) voice would feel more authentic.

I generally like the historical information presented in this book. The prairie settlers get overlooked too often, and this helps redress that imbalance somewhat. I do wish, however, that the publishers went to more trouble to make sure that readers understood that this is ENTIRELY A WORK OF FICTION. In particular, the inclusion of an epilogue that purports to tell what the characters did in later life contributes to the illusion that this is "real."

P.S. One caveat for the gift-giver: This story uses the occasional appearance of her father's ghost in unexpected "visions" to move the plot along. Do NOT buy this for someone who will be offended by seance-like visions and unearthly communications from dead relatives.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique View, December 26, 2002

By 

Allyn "pianogirl" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska 1881 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

Fourteen-almost-fifteen-year-old Sarah Jane Price and her father had moved to the small frontier town of Broken Bow, Nebraska in 1881. Sarah Jane's father was a teacher; yet now that he is dead, Sarah is left with no kin and little money, and the chilren of the town have no teacher. There is enough money that Sarah Jane can stay in the boarding house she is accustomed to for a few months, but after that, where can she go? Miss Kizer, the rather cold and unfeeling woman who runs the boarding house, is ready to send Sarah off to the nearby Orphan Girls' Christian Asylum. However, Sarah Jane is heartsick at the thought of going to an orphanege, where according to her Broken Bow friend Ida, she must lead a dreary, work-filled life. Ida and Sarah Jane brainstorm frantically in hopes of figuring out a way that Sarah Jane can have the money to stay in Broken Bow. One by one, the possibilites are ruled out, and in desparation, Sarah Jane tells members of the school board that she can take her father's place as Broken Bow schoolteacher. After Sarah Jane falsely claims that she's sixteen, the board reluctantly agrees that she can have the position. Up against a primitive schoolhouse, virtually no supplies, and unruly scholars...can Sarah Jane do it?

As the title of my review says, this "Dear America" book does give us a unique view of yet another aspect of pioneer life and gives us a vivid idea of what teaching school was REALLY like in the frontier age. Of course, it was very unrealistic in many ways that Sarah Jane was even allowed to teach (wouldn't anyone investigate to see how old she really was?), but that small flaw didn't diminish my enjoyment of this diary. After all, it was great fun to watch Sarah Jane learn how to teach, see how she coped with all of the challenges, and see her overcome some of the townspeople's negative thoughts toward her. "My Face to the Wind" is rather dry and boring at the beginning (a little too much info about the chores that Sarah must do and the long, lonely walks that she takes) and her belief that her dead father "talked" to her seemed to be a bizzare, overdone, and "hokey" twist to the book...but don't let these minor flaws stop you from enjoying this inspiring diary of a prairie schoolteacher!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, November 6, 2001

By 

"booklovur" (Cali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska 1881 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

Sarah Jane Price is searching for a way to stay in Nebraska. She, although only 14 years old, is forced to choose between making money or being sent to a Orphanage.
I found this book to be slow in the beginning, but thought provoking and interesting as the story progressed. Jim Murphy has written some of the wonderful Dear America, etc. books, and he is no sloucher in this one.