My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

by Jim Murphy

Book Overview

In the late 1870s, many young teachers traveled West to earn money and make a new life for themselves, despite the schools being inadequate at best. Some returned home, unable to endure the hardships... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590438107
• ISBN13: 9780590438100
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 9 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 9

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!

Just to keep it short, this book is definitely a must buy & will be a great addition to your collection.. or if it's your 1st book to get in this series, then this book will be great to start it off! Excellent one for sure!!

Lemonade from Prairie Lemons

My Face to the Wind / 0-590-43810-7 Another wonderful addition to the Dear America series, "My Face to the Wind" is certain to engage both children and adults as the fictional diarist strives to make a living in the harsh prairie lands of America. When her father, a professional school teacher, dies unexpectedly from a plague that sweeps through the new town, Sarah Jane Price finds herself completely alone and orphaned. Although the lady she boards with is kind and solicitous, she is eager to be rid of Sarah Jane and considers it her "Christian duty" to ship the young girl off to an orphanage, where she will perform hard labor six days out of the week and wear herself thin with weak meals and little love. Sarah rebels against this plan and audaciously suggests that she replace her deceased father as the new school teacher - she has, she argues, the proper credentials and she is, she lies, of the appropriate age. This novel follows closely the trials she faces. She is lonely, without a father or family, and she is despised by many of the townspeople who do not believe she is "humble" enough, and that a woman should not be a teacher. Many of her students refuse to take learning seriously, believing that farmers don't need education. Sarah wins over their hearts, surviving in impossible teaching conditions (including a sod school house which is literally falling apart), and winning over her students and their parents with her indomitable spirit. More than anything, this book reminded me strongly of the "Little House on the Prairie" books, particularly the ones that feature so strongly Laura's days at her school. This diary realistically portrays the daily life and dangers on the prairie - the disease, the hard work, the scarce wood, the transient towns, the traveling ministers, and the colorful characters that graced our country's history.

A great book

A wonderful story. Sarah Jane Price is only fourteen years old but all alone in the world. Her father recently died and Sarah Jane must now figure out how to survive all on her own. She doesn't want to leave Broken Bow where her father was suppose to be the new teacher. She asks the town to give her a try as a teacher. Overnight Sarah Jane goes from being a student to the teacher. She struggles to assert her self as a teacher to her students and keeping her students in school while the storm of 1888 hits and Sarah Jane must guide her students home in the freezing cold. Its such a huge responsiblty and Sarah Jane handled it very well.

Eunicia's Book Report

DEAR AMERICA My Face to the Wind By Jim Murphy The diary of Sara Jane Price, a prarie teacher. In My Face to the Wind Sara Jane Price who was 14 years old moved to Broken Bow, Nebraska with her father who was a teacher. After a short while her father got the fever and died, Sara moved in with an elderly lady named Miss Kizer who owned an inn. When Sara found out she was to go to a Chriastan orphanage called The Girl's Asylum, and found out they work six days a week in the fields except for Sunday from her friend Ida she wanted to stay in Broken Bow desperately. After Sara found out about The Girl's Asylum she decidedto make money by being a tacher in Broken Bow, she thought it was a good idea because she learned how to teach a little from watching her father. As Sara told Ida, her friend, about the idea Ida said to go ask her father who is on the school board and get the school rules pamphlet. When Sara and Ida arrived at Ida's house Ida went to get the pamphlet while Sara explained the idae to Ida's father and Mr. Gaddis who is also on the school board. After a few days Mr. Gaddis and the rest of the school board decided they would let Sara teach until they found a real teacher. the setting of the book takes place in Broken Bow, Nebraska during 1881. The theme of the story to me is if you work hard and don't give up your ddream can come true. This book is a really great and interesting book. If you ever have extra time I suggest you read this book.

A good choice for the even the older Dear America fan

I have read Jim Murhpy's other two books in the Dear America series, and I have to say I liked this the best of all, with "West to a Land of Plenty" in close second. Sarah Jane Price is a 14 year old girl now alone in Broken Bow, Nebraska. Her father who was supposed to be the school teacher for the town, recently died from black diptheria which had also ravaged the town. After the lady of the boarding house with whom she was staying with, decides the best thing for her to do is go to a "girls home", Sarah thinks of every possible way she could stay in Broken Bow. Even though she doesn't care much for the harsh winds, or life on the prarie in general, she knows anything would be better than the girls home. When she comes up with a way, she decides she could become the next school teacher in Broken Bow. She meets with criticism and rebukes at first from the school board, but decides that neither the parents or the children are going to get the best of her. She does indeed become a very good schoolteacher, through many trials and tribulations.

A wonderful new Dear America book.

Life in the small frontier town of Broken Bow, Nebraska, is difficult, especially for a fourteen-year-old girl on her own. Which is what Sarah Jane Price is now that her father, the schoolteacher, has died in an epidemic. Sarah Jane is devastated by this loss. She is unable to remember her mother, who died when she was very young, and her father was the only family she had in the world. She is determined to stay in Broken Bow, where she can be near her father's grave. But her money is running out, and to stay in Broken Bow, Sarah Jane will need to find a source of income. Broken Bow's children need a teacher now that her father has died, and Sarah Jane decides that she can be that teacher. The school board decides to give her a chance. But she is young and inexperienced, and teaching is more difficult that she ever imagined. Can Sarah Jane succeed? Fans of the Dear America series will love this book, and I highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction, especially those who enjoy prairie stories.