The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts
The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts
The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts
Richard Peck
"If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it," begins Richard Peck's latest novel, a book full of his signature wit and sass. Russell Culver is fifteen in 1904, and he's raring to leave his tiny Indiana farm town for the endless sky of the Dakotas. To him, school has been nothing but a chain holding him back from his dreams. Maybe now that his teacher has passed on, they'll shut the school down entirely and leave him free to roam. No such luck. Russell has a particularly eventful season of schooling ahead of him, led by a teacher he never could have predicted--perhaps the only teacher equipped to control the likes of him: his sister Tansy. Despite stolen supplies, a privy fire, and more than any classroom's share of snakes, Tansy will manage to keep that school alive and maybe, just maybe, set her brother on a new, wiser course. As he did in A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck creates a whole world of folksy, one-of-a-kind characters here--the enviable and the laughable, the adorably meek and the deliciously terrifying. There will be no forgetting Russell, Tansy, and all the rest who populate this hilarious, shrewd, and thoroughly enchanting novel.

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Fiction
  • Humor

Age Level: 

  • 12 and up
Profile Picture
AG

Russel is 15 years old, but still in the eighth grade at Hominy Ridge School. He thinks that the recent death of his disliked teacher, Miss Myrt, was fortunate and that his school might close up as a result. Little does he know how events can turn against him. With the new teacher come unfortunate occurrences for Russel and his friends.

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JPM

This is a charming tale about two mischevious brothers, Russell and Floyd, and their adventures. As soon as summer ends, their teacher, Ms. Myrt Arbuckle, passes away. In hopes that they would never go to school again, they never expected that their sister, Tansy, could ever accept the job. The Teacher's Funeral is all about the pranks, journeys, and loves in the school year of 1904.

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