Storm in the Village (The Fairacre Series #3)
Storm in the Villageis the third in a series of novels detailing the adventures of the Fairacre village school teacher, Miss Read (the pen name for retired English schoolteacher, Dora Jessie Saint). The storm in the title is the Government's proposal to buy Mr. Miller's Hundred Acre Field, just on the edge of Fairacre, to build a "worker's estate." As is natural in both major storms and small villages, minor squalls abound. Miss Jackson, Miss Read's assistant, is currently boarding with Miss Claire, who is getting on in years, but there are problems with this arrangement because Miss Jackson - whom "no one would call tidy" - seems determined to fall in love with the local scoundrel. When Joseph Coggs, Miss Read's twelve-year-old student, runs away from his drunken and abusive father and is discovered hiding in the school, the village is quick to respond. The storm swells as Mr. Miller vows he will die before he is forced to sell his land, while the vicar can't help but think how more people would increase the church's membership and prestige. Sometimes behind but more often in the midst of all this furor are Mrs. Pringle, the ever prickly cleaning woman, and Miss Read, the happily single school teacher who observes, with witty generosity and "a spinster's straight aim," everything that goes on in Fairacre.-- For great reviews of books for girls, check outLet's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --From500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.