Lessons |
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Author:
Bonnie Geisert
By Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $0.75
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Prairie Summer
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Product Description
Summer was drawing to a close, and Rachel would soon return to school to begin fifth grade. Like many of her classmates, she was anxious about her friends, the strict Mrs. Kelly, and the timed arithmetic tests, but there was something else worrying Rachel, too. Ever since her baby brother, Matthew, was born, she couldn't help but notice that her father seemed even more brooding and withdrawn than ever. Confused and concerned by his behavior, Rachel starts demanding answers—but the secret she uncovers raises more questions than it solves.
Author Bonnie Geisert transports readers back to a simpler time and place. Yet life on a rural South Dakota farm in the 1950s was not without its challenges, and Rachel soon discovers she has many lessons to learn, both in Mrs. Kelly's classroom and beyond . . .
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Who is the target audience?, 2006-07-21
This memoir has been lovingly crafted and evokes a world somewhere between Little House on the Prairie and Sarah Plain and Tall. The simple sentence structure seems appropriate for a third grader, until you discover the father's secret worry and the center of the story: the eternal damnation of an unbaptized infant following his death at one month. As a school librarian, I would feel very uncomfortable recommending this book to a young student, and the lack of a complex story does not lend itself to an older reader.
Hopeful and family-centered, 2005-06-24
In Bonnie Geisert's previous novel, PRAIRIE SUMMER, Rachel, the third of four daughters living on a South Dakota farm in 1954, saved the day when her mother was in labor with Rachel's new baby brother. In LESSONS, it's now fall; Rachel prepares to start fifth grade at the regional school, and baby Matthew is firmly part of the family. But Rachel's father seems deeply sad every time he looks at the baby, and he often can't stand even to hold him.
When Rachel finally asks her mother the cause of her father's sadness, Rachel's mother reveals a family secret. Many years before, Rachel's parents had a baby boy, Roger Gene, who died before he could be baptized. According to their Lutheran minister, Roger Gene could not have gone to heaven and could not have a proper Christian burial. Although Rachel's mother, raised Methodist, believes that Roger is in heaven, Rachel's father, a confirmed Lutheran, is tortured by thoughts that his deceased child is not in heaven; now this new baby boy brings those thoughts to mind constantly. Is there some way that Rachel's father can come to terms with his faith and find a way to love his baby son?
Bonnie Geisert is best known for her detailed nonfiction picture books, illustrated by her husband Art Geisert, documenting everyday life in different types of small towns. This fact-based approach is also evident in LESSONS, particularly since, as Geisert mentions in her afterword, the novel is based heavily on Geisert's own family history. Although Geisert is not a particularly graceful writer, her novel is filled with details about mid-twentieth-century farm, family, and rural school life that may be of interest to readers who enjoy learning about history. There are also many Lutheran theological fine points that may go over most readers' heads. Rachel, though, is a sympathetic character, genuinely concerned about her father's happiness, and the novel's ending is hopeful and family-centered.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780618478996
ISBN: 061847899X
Label: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2005-04-18
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books |
