The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

Richard Peck

Russell Culver can't believe his luck!  The teacher of Hominy Ridge School died over the summer.  With any luck, school will close forever!  Unfortunately, his big (no pun intended) sister becomes the new teacher.  Can Russell and the other students live up to her expectations?  Will any of Miss Tansy's suitors win her heart?  The misadventures of Miss Tansy and her eight pupils will have readers howling.  If the walls of this one-room country school house could talk, the town would never be the same.

I grabbed The Teacher's Funeral from my school's library shelf on the way out the door last week.  It took me a few chapters to 'bond' with Russell and his family, but I'm glad I kept reading.  A snake in the teacher's desk, Fat Aunt Fanny getting stuck in a ditch and the older male pupils fighting for Miss Tansy's heart made me laugh out loud.  I kept trying to imagine these colorful characters in a made-for-TV movie.  What a fun book!