Book Report: Miss Read in January

 For 2021, I decided to take up a monthly read of two Miss Read Books:  Village Diary and The Year at Thrush Green.  I’ve read both of these books many (man!) times before; they are familiar and happy favorites in my world.  Both books have a chapter for each month of the year and I plan to read the chapter corresponding to the month at hand, progressing through the stories month-by-month.

Village Diary might very well be my favorite of all the Miss Read books, which is saying something.  In it, the character of Miss Read is unvarnished, with her sarcasm on fine display in a way that I especially enjoy.  Both books are written as monthly diaries and so they make a nice seasonal companion for the year.  The imaginary towns of Fair Acre and Thrush Green had cold and snowy Januaries and by all accounts we’re to close out this month with a humdinger of a storm - the forecast calls for more than 20 inches in my corner of the state - so the chapters were an especially fitting close to this eventful month.  I always enjoy a little time in Miss Read’s world and this 2021 project is a happy one to contemplate.

12 Months of Miss Read: December

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

Miss Read in December

Miss Read ends her school’s 100th year with a celebration at the Fair Acre schoolhouse, one that features re-enactments from the school journal, a daily report that the head of school writes.  The re-enactments are a collection of charming, amusing, and poignant periods in Fair Acre School’s history, meant to include the community and celebrate both the history and changes the school has experienced over the years.  Miss Read’s celebration closed with the school annual December tradition, a holiday tea.

At my school, we’ve had various celebrations of our school’s 250 years, including publication of a book detailing the school’s last 50 years of history, an update to an earlier historical edition.  This part of the celebration appeals to me the most, of course, because history is a big part of my world.  Each year, I teach my students about the Great Awakening and I tell them the story of the founding of our school as a direct outcome of that historical time.  Whether they are 7th graders or 11th graders, the students enjoy learning about their school’s origins; they feel proud to be part of something so enduring.  

The older I get, the more I value the ways in which a sense of our shared history is empowering.  In 7th grade, I teach the first half of American history and my students and I explore the notion of who we are as a nation by exploring how that identity first came to be.  For most adolescents, the 7th grade year is all about change, some of it thrilling and some of it anxiety-producing.  I hope that in my class the students can see what has endured; that a sense of history will serve as an anchor as they navigate the waves of change.

12 Months of Miss Read: November

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

Miss Read in November
Miss Read’s November sees the arrival of cooler fall weather.  Her month is filled with planning for her school’s 100th celebration, a December tea party following the performance of historical vignettes by her students.  Her mind is also on her school’s future.  As my school prepares to close out celebrations of our 250th year, the idea of the future has hold of me as well.  This shared fascination with the passage of time joins Miss Read and I together.

In at least one respect, as the mama of a 16 year old high school junior, the notion of the future always seems to be at hand.  There’s talk of college and standardized tests and planning, planning, planning.  The future looms large and can easily consume us.  In the midst of this chatter, it’s easy to lose sense of the moment.  There are times when I look at my son and struggle to reconcile the tall and strong young man with the chubby cheeked toddler and little boy whom he once was.  When he was first born, a friend told me that the nights were long but the years passed quickly.  These days, that truth is more apparent than ever.  I do my best to live in the moment, aware how quickly it will pass us by.

Professionally, time spent in the company of 6th and 7th graders is an all-together different reminder of the passage of time.  These kids do live in the moment, some times blissfully unaware of a future as close at hand as tomorrow.  At other times, their eye is on the prize of independence and freedom of high school and beyond.  They can be silly and wise in practically the same moment.  They are changing rapidly, a fact about which they sometimes seem blissfully unaware.  Practically overnight, their bodies and voices change, limbs grow longer, and brains grow more sophisticated.  The theme of middle school is persistent change.

Miss Read and I live our lives in the company of children and we genuinely like the work.  I think that our shared fondness for children and our similar sense of humor is why I like these books so much.  They are a ready companion whenever I need it.

12 months of Miss Read: October

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

Miss Read in October 

Miss Read’s October is filled with planning for her school’s centennial celebration.  She’s also relishing that last days of summer warmth.  I feel the same way, enjoying the cooler nights and warmth of a fall quilt, but turning my face toward the sun when the afternoons are warm.  I’ve still got my flip flops at the ready but increasingly I come home and look for slippers or socks.  The leaves are blowing about and fall is in the air.  

After a week of cool weather, today is sunny and warm.  Throughout my house, the windows are open so that we can enjoy the air.  As October prepares to close out, I'm aware that warm days like this are increasingly rare.  So they should be embraced and enjoyed. Miss Read agrees.

12 Months of Miss Read: September

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fairacre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fairacre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

September with Miss Read

Miss Read and her students returned to school in September.  My students also came back and together, Miss Read and I made the adjustment to the busier days of school.

We started our school year with a musical concert to celebrate our school’s 250th anniversary.  Miss Read is planning a celebration for her own school’s 100th anniversary and September found her reviewing the historical costumes her students will wear as they re-enact scenes from Fairacre School’s history.  The author behind the Miss Read series, was a school teacher herself before she took up writing and she clearly never lost her sense of the life of a teacher.  Miss Read gets to the end of September a little tired but settling in to the pattern of her school days.  She always takes pleasure in her work, even when there are challenges on the horizon.  Miss Read and I have that in common, which probably explains why I always come back to these stories.

12 Months of Miss Read: August

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

August with Miss Read

By August, Miss Read is enjoying her summer break.  She fits in some overdue chores, works in her garden, and plans time away from home.  That’s a month a great deal like my own.  As the close of August approaches, Miss Read sees signs of the coming fall on her outdoor walks.  I read of this cooling weather with some envy, as we’ve had a sweltering hot August.  But yesterday brought an afternoon rainstorm and with the rain came cooler weather and an easing of the humidity.  When I walked out to the porch this morning, it was refreshing and lovely, with a cool morning and a breeze on the wind.

As August bends past its halfway point, my preparations for school fill my days.  I’m not ready to give up the leisurely mornings (or the flip flops!) but there is comfort in the return to our school routines.  Miss Read, who also begins school in September, certainly understands how it feels.  

I like the fact that Miss Read and I are on the same trajectory in the month of August.  In so many ways, this character is a companion to me.  We share a strong sense of the school as the center of a community of people who care about one another.  She looks for happiness and finds it.  She's content and not afraid to feel that way.  She unfailingly reminds me to stop and mark the passage of time and honor its meaning in my corner of the world.  

12 Months of Miss Read: July

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

July with Miss Read

In July, Miss Read settled on the details of a celebration of her school’s 100th anniversary.  As she planned a pageant to tell the story of the history of her school, I was at my school most days planning out our schedule for the coming school year.  School is always about planning and yet the planning must prepare for the prospect of the unexpected, so it’s a mix of planning and flexibility that makes my school days a success.  Miss Read would understand.

Miss Read’s month ends with the arrival of summer holidays.  By July, I’m well in to my summer holidays.  There are still nearly six weeks until students return to school, so I’ve still plenty of flip flop days ahead of me.  But July always has me thinking of August and that inevitably means September is on my radar.  Happily, Miss Read always provides a reminder to live in the moment.  So that is exactly what I plan to do.

12 Months of Miss Read: June

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

Miss Read’s June was filled with flowers and sunlight.  She starts her month having returned from a late May vacation from school.  As I don’t live in England, my May was lovely but filled with the last weeks of school, each day seemingly more crammed with events than the next.  Then June arrived and the real chaos began.  

June with Miss Read

Miss Read’s June starts on a more restful note and her month meanders into July with talk of garden blooms and the summer school break that is close at hand.  As June unfolds, Miss Read settles on a plan for her school’s 100th anniversary to be held at the the end of the year in December.

At this point, with my summer break just underway, December seems a far off event.  But the older I get, the more rapidly the school year seems to pass.  JT has just finished the 10th grade and this summer he will practice driving in earnest so that come February 2017 he can get his driver’s license.  This month we will start to make college visits, a development that seems as insane as the idea of my boy driving a car.

So as Miss Read reflects on that last 100 years of her school, I am thinking about my last year and planning my summer to-do list.  First on the list is some time away from school to relax, sleep in, and enjoy some baseball.  Miss Read, from her bench in the sunny garden, would surely understand.

12 Months of Miss Read: May

Miss Read notes that May is her favorite month and I certainly share her pleasure in the month.  Around here, May tends to be mild and with trees leafed out; everywhere I look, there is beauty to be seen.  The month of May finds Miss Read contemplating the role of her school in the life of her town and, as she prepares a celebration of the school’s 100 years, she’s thinking about the school’s central place in the life of her town community:  from celebrations of the Queen Victoria’s 50th year on the throne to the school’s contributions to England’s war effort in the 20th century, the Fair Acre school has been at the center of it all.

My school is less a fixture in the community than it is the actual community; the center of the lives of the families with children enrolled in its grades.  For me, with a child in the school and a job in its hallways, the school is very much the center of our world.  At no time is this is obvious as the month of May, when school days have a frenetic pace as projects and work are completed.  Between early meetings and late baseball games, that day may very well last more than 12 hours.  I think that a school’s most essential contribution is its sense of community.  When that exists, children can take risks and push further, safe in the knowledge that a support net is in place.  For thirteen years, my school has played that role for JT and I and in May, as our school year winds down, it seems fitting to be grateful for that enormous blessing.

12 Months of Miss Read: April

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

The British have a saying that “April is the cruelest month,” a reflection of the fact that April is tantalizingly close to May’s flowers and warmth even while the month often features lingering cold and chilly rain.  April feels a bit like we are being teased with the promise of warmth to come, even as May still feels a bit out of reach.  

April with Miss Read

Miss Read’s April was filled with thoughts of the meaning of her school in the tiny community of Fair Acre.  That has been a theme for my April as well.  A successful school is a community with foibles and annoyances, to be sure, but also a sense of itself as part of something greater for the presence of us all.  As Miss Read contemplates organization of a school celebration to remember the school’s contributions and history over its 100 years, I’ve been thinking of the way that school plays out in the daily life of the middle schoolers with whom I spend my days.

As my middle schoolers come to school each morning, I strive to be in the hall when they pass through the front doors.  I offer smiles and good mornings like so many talismans for the start of their day.  In this way I can take the measure of my charges and their needs for the day.  In April, the students are impatient for warmth and the outdoors; ready to stretch their suddenly longer legs and arms.  They are eager for the pleasures of the seasonal change at hand.

A blustery, cold day finds them wilder than usual.  Sun and warmth is eagerly absorbed like they are ripening fruit on the vine.  One moment they are children, the next they are teenagers.  They move back and forth between the two identities with a speed that they themselves don’t understand.  One moment they offer a profound thought; the next they look about frantically for a pencil case that looks more like a stuffed animal than a item for school.  They are caught between two worlds.  They strive to make sense of this intersection of life and the world beyond it, a combination of of fresh and new; warm and cold.  They are April and like April, they are lovely in their own charming way.

12 Months of Miss Read: March

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

March with Miss Read

As March approached, I found myself looking forward to reading my month’s allotment of Miss Read, a sure sign of how much I love these books.  I took up the chapter straight away come March 1 and read a small section.  It’s like having a good friend back in town; the sort of friend with whom a conversation picks right up where it last left off.

At just under 15 pages, Miss Read’s March chapter passed quickly, rather a lot like my own experience of the month.  As her March unfolds, Miss Read prepares to thin her book collection, a task she takes up on a cool March evening.  By the end of the night, rather than set aside books to be donated, she is instead happy to be united with familiar stories.  Her collection isn’t thinned; instead she embraces some old favorites and by the end of the evening climbs the stairs to her bed with a stack of favorite books to re-read.

Oh, how familiar that sounds to me.  It’s no wonder I love this book so much.

12 Months of Miss Read: February

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250th anniversary and as we think of our past and look toward our future, I thought that Miss Read would once-again make a lovely companion for me.  Each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

February with Miss Read

In the January chapter, Miss Read and her longtime friend Miss Clare have tea and remember that come February 1 there will be enough light after tea for a walk in the fading light of day.  The imaginary village of Fair Acre is in the Cotswolds and thus several degrees north of central New Jersey in latitude.  Moreover, we don’t have a 4 pm tea time tradition.  But that observation governs my thoughts as February approaches and come the 1st of the month, I take myself for an outdoor walk to observe the slowly lengthening days.

One of the things I’ve learned from Miss Read novels is to stop and appreciate the joys of the natural world.  I’ve always liked the outdoors but reading Miss Read novels brought me a much greater self-awareness of the power of the natural world when it comes to shaping my own moods.   I read my first Miss Read book in 2006, when my life was abruptly altered and I became a single mama.  In that first summer, when virtually every moment of my life was touched by the pain of that break-up, Miss Read’s stories brought me a much-needed respite from unhappiness.  The characters were companions whose advice and worldview lingered well after I closed the books. 

So it is due to Miss Read that I pause and admire the Winter light in February, now aware that from the start of the month to its end, more than an hour of sunlight will be added to our days.  Even as the cold lingers, that light slowly marches us that much closer to the glories of Spring.

12 Months of Miss Read: January

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250th anniversary and as we think of our past and look toward our future, I thought that Miss Read would once-again make a lovely companion for me.  Each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.  

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

January with Miss Read

Village Centenary starts in January and so did my project, though it’s taken me to the month of February to finish my writing about January.  Miss Read’s month of January unfolds rather like my own, as she puts her holidays behind her and prepares for a the blustery cold first month of the year.  Part of her mind is directed toward thinking about her school’s 100^th year, but most of Miss Read’s days are filled with the details of daily existence: keeping children busy and happy when they are stuck indoors; the moods of her irritable school cleaner, Mrs. Pringle; the wry observations of her school handyman, Mr. Willet.

Our first day back at school in 2016 featured an all-school photo, as we prepared to celebrate our 250^th year.  Like many milestones, this one mostly lives in our subconscious, as the Winter school days unfolded in the typical fashion.  At school, January is a month when some serious schoolwork gets done.  There are occasional 3 day weekends on the horizon but we’ve 10 weeks between the January return-to-school and the arrival of Spring Break and by now the students have adjusted to the pace of academic expectations.

My January is filled with long days that begin in the dark and end with post-wrestling practice drives home in the dark twilight.  Like Miss Read, I turn my face to the sunlight when it shines, even if it’s a cold sunshine.  I wrap up in cardigans and set out scraps of bread for the animals who spend Winter in my back yard.  I mark the days on my calendar, aware that each week brings a few extra minutes of the sunlight that I crave in the Winter months.  I also pause to enjoy the stark beauty of Winter, aware that it is the months of Winter that make the colors of Spring and Summer so lovely.