The Teacher's Funeral

By: Richard Peck

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

The year is 1904, and Russell is 15. Though he dreams of leaving small-town Indiana to become part of a large farm crew in the Dakotas, he's forced to stay in school, where his sister Tansy has just become the new teacher. Through the autumn, Russell observes the strange goings-on in the classroom, including a fight for Tansy's affection between a rough-and-tumble guy named Glenn and Russell's own best friend, Charlie. (Both will need to compete with a city slicker named Eugene who's in the area trying to sell an amazing new invention called the automobile.) By Thanksgiving, Tansy has become a full-fledged teacher and Russell has resigned himself to the student life. In the last chapter, we learn which man ultimately won Tansy's heart, and also who Russell ended up marrying.©2004 Richard Peck; (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

“Peck is in his element here. [S]o vivid is the telling of every event, conversation, and emotion. Best of all, the dry wit and unpretentious tone make the story’s events comical, its characters memorable, and its conclusion unexpectedly moving.”—Booklist, starred review

Slow start but worth the Listen!

I didn't think I'd finish this book at first, but I'm glad I did. This is a slice of Midwest Americana at the turn of the 20th century. The story is of a one room school house for a bunch of kids in a rural Indiana farming community. Dylan Baker's character voices were excellent and the writing painted pictures of farm strong folk. I wanted to know a little more about some things, but I guess it is better to be left wanting rather than the alternative.

This is a great short listen if you are looking for one!

A fabulous family read!

As grandparents, we always love taking our two grandsons on vacation. With Covid restrictions, we took a short road trip to the ocean. This audio book was full of humor, hyperbole and conversation starters about the “olden days”. Richard Peck’s writing is full of imagery and his humor is perfect for children and grandparents!

The narrator did a spectacular job fluctuating his tone and made the whole book a very enjoyable read! Thank you!

The story itself was written in an old western tone, so it was a little bit difficult for me to read and understand, however, the narrator to spectacular job in keeping me intrigued the whole time

Fantastic

Love this author! Love every story he has written! The characters are real and very enterprising!

Much to Learn From This One

This is a "growing up" novel, a story of how things seem one way at certain points in our lives, but because of circumstances, we start to see things, events and mostly people in a different light. We are all a little inclined not to want things to change, and yet when they do, we often come to see that the change was needed and it turns out to be life changing in a good way. So it is with this story. The good news for the school children is that their "mean" teacher dies the day before school starts. The bad news is the new teacher could turn out to be worse than the old one. Everyone learns and grows from this experience and builds a lot of character in the children in the process.