Customer Reviews

Is That You, Miss Blue?

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book 26 years ago. It energized me and gave me boldness to be myself. Perhaps it is of mediocre literary quality -- I would be interested to read it again now -- but it gave me what I needed at age 13.

Is That You, Miss Blue deserves more than 2 stars. I read it about 15 years ago and I'd like to read it again. It resonated with what I was feeling at the time.

I read a lot of M.E. Kerr books as a teen in the 70s and this, along with "Dinky Hocker", is one that stuck with me the best. The narrator, Flanders, has been sent off to a girl's boarding school because her mother has run off with another man and Flanders is "in the way". At the boarding school, Flanders meets all kinds of characters including her impoverished and cynical friend Cardmaker; a gorgeous hillbilly girl from a nouveau riche family; another gorgeous girl who is deaf and incredibly loud; and Miss Blue, a reclusive teacher who spends a lot of time visiting with a large portrait of "her pal" Jesus. Flanders eventually develops an odd attachment to Miss Blue, who may be eccentric, but is at least quietly eccentric.

Although this book doesn't have much of a consistent theme or plot, and may be a little arcane to those of us who haven't attended boarding schools, there are some very hilarious parts - many years later I can still remember how hard I laughed at the chapter where the girls attend a school dance. Cardmaker's dyed formal stains her neck blue and Flanders gets a crush on a gorgeous rich boy who's the equivalent of Jethro from Beverly Hillbillies and talks about steaks as big as "toilet seats". Religion and belief in God come into play in the book, as the hypocritical school authorities (the school is nominally Episcopal) disapprove of the "atheist club" started by some of the girls but also disapprove of the seemingly genuine and personal faith of Miss Blue. Miss Blue is perhaps an even more interesting character in the 2000's than she was in the 1970s for the simple reason that she professes her religious faith quietly, personally and a little eccentrically, in contrast to today's evangelical styles.

As with Tucker in "Dinky Hocker", Flanders is presented as the more "normal" foil to the wackier students and teachers all around her and it's likely that some readers will relate to her feelings of loneliness and insecurity. I personally didn't relate but I still thought it was an OK book.

Is That You Miss. Blue? is a mediocre book about a young girl named Flanders Brown. After her mother runs off with another man, her father doesn't quite know what to do with his daughter. He decides to send her off to a boarding school in Virginia called Charles School. Flanders is nervous and excited, but doesn't know how she will fit in. She meets her first friend, Carolyn Cardmaker (who only responds if you call her by her last name) on the train ride there.
Because Flanders has asthma, she requests a private room away from the regular dorms. Her room is on a vacent hallway with the exception of her two roomates. Angus, is a beautiful, rich, rebelious girl, but she is also deaf and quite loud. And her other roomate is Miss. Blue, who is a biology teacher and calls Jesus her "pal."
Her stay at Charles is filled with the usual teenage problems and how she tries to rebuild her family's relationships.

Is That You Miss. Blue? is a mediocre book about a young girl named Flanders Brown. After her mother runs off with another man, her father doesn't quite know what to do with his daughter. He decides to send her off to a boarding school in Virginia called Charles School. Flanders is nervous and excited, but doesn't know how she will fit in. She meets her first friend, Carolyn Cardmaker (who only responds if you call her by her last name) on the train ride there.
Because Flanders has asthma, she requests a private room away from the regular dorms. Her room is on a vacent hallway with the exception of her two roomates. Angus, is a beautiful, rich, rebelious girl, but she is also deaf and quite loud. And her other roomate is Miss. Blue, who is a biology teacher and calls Jesus her "pal."
Her stay at Charles is filled with the usual teenage problems and how she tries to rebuild her family's relationships.

This book seems fairly superficial and is taken up with a lot of gossip and disrespectful attitudes. A few of the girls form an atheist club and try to persuade others that there is no God, even though they are going to an Episcopal boarding school. There isn't even much depth of feeling to make it something to relate to.