Saving Miss Oliver's

by Stephen Davenport

Book Overview

The fate of the beloved school is hanging in the balance. . .

"From the very first paragraphs, Saving Miss Oliver's is an engaging read and is very highly recommended to all general fiction readers."
--Midwest Book Review

"There are moments here that indicate that Davenport, who, as his bio notes, 'had a long career in education, ' was probably an excellent teacher, like a scene in which Francis explicates a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1513261312
• ISBN13: 9781513261317
• Release Date: September 2018
• Publisher: Westwinds Press
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

A Novel of Depth and Integrity

The reader enters Miss Oliver's with the first word. Stephen Davenport's novel is a fascinating look at not only the inner workings of a private girls' school, but also the multiple layers of human motivation. Mr. Davenport deftly invites us to care about his characters as we learn what they think, what they do, and then very cleverly, how others are responding to that thinking and doing. Mr. Davenport writes with integrity as he develops his characters. It seemed clear that he cares deeply for his characters as they struggle through the changes at Miss Oliver's. I loved the way the novel illuminates the assumptions these characters make and how this affects their actions and intentions. It was a fun and fascinating read. As a former trustee of a private (non-boarding) school, I am somewhat familiar with school challenges. And yet, I felt I entered a whole new world in this book. Couldn't put it down.

A novel that knows how it is to lead

Even mediocre schools touch people deeply; great schools join themselves to the hearts of students, parents, teachers, and alumni. Love intensifies their passion about everything the school does, sometimes making the school leader's role almost impossibly challenging. Few novels attempt to capture the challenges of leading a beloved school, and none do so better than "Saving Miss Oliver's." Leaders of colleges, churches, art museums, and other much-loved institutions will resonate with Fred Kindler's difficulties as he becomes the first male head of a boarding school for girls. He follows a charismatic leader whose long tenure led Miss Oliver's to educational excellence and fiscal peril. "Saving Miss Oliver's" combines the usual novelistic virtues--convincing characters, artful language, and an intriguing plot--with a grasp of organizational dynamics and the challenges of leadership that makes it a rare treat for readers who are also leaders. Dan Hotchkiss, senior consultant The Alban Institute

High School from the Inside Out

For those of us who understand adolescence to be a critical time of life and who have known influential teachers, this book lets slip the lessons gained from our experiences: that we learn best through relationships, that high school often prepares us in unexpected ways for our lives -- and that we read fiction to begin to get at the truth. Woven through "Saving Miss Oliver's" is homage to teachers and the art of teaching. Almost exactly in the middle of the story, and thus at its core, is the extended scene in which Francis Plummer teaches Robert Frost's "Home Burial" to a class of ninth grade girls. It is a revelation of the passion, dedication and talent that mark great teachers. At last a writer is showing these men and women, real heroes, at their actual work. Davenport's ability to draw us into the lives of his characters underscores his talent of hitting the right notes in the lessons we draw from both them and him.

Best school novel since Beth Gutcheon's, "Saying Grace," or Richard Hawley's, "The Headmaster's Pape

It is a common observation that merely having gone to a school can make anyone a self-styled expert on education. An unfortunately large number of those who spend time in private schools also think they're qualified to write the great school novel. Over the past two years, Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep and Andrew Tree's Academy X - one from a student, the other from a young teacher - reveal how dangerous or simply dull a little knowledge can be. Stephen Davenport's Saving Miss Oliver's, on the other hand, shows how rich a story can come from a lifetime's independent school experience. Readers who want to go beyond the scandalous doings of students, administrators and trustees, as churned in the blender of pop fiction, may find this the best school novel since Beth Gutcheon's Saying Grace, or Richard Hawley's The Headmaster's Papers. Davenport, a former independent school head and a long-time mentor of other educators, creates a believable school and a set of characters who seem both entirely familiar and yet never stereotyped or one-dimensional. The novel's opening is as familiar as an NAIS case study: the departure of a long-term head, from a school that "must be saved from the flaws of the very woman who has made it what it is." The fact that Miss Oliver's is a girls' school with a unique vision, located on the site of a Native American village, adds piquant detail and the opportunity for a very distinctive set of conflicts. Into this après moi le deluge walks Fred Kindler, a self-described "ex farm boy ascended," who finds not only worse financial conditions than he expected, but an array of alumnae, parents, and faculty ready to pounce on the perceived risk he poses to the school's traditions. Kindler's first moves, from the detail of his office decoration to his preference for the term "head of school," all evoke intense emotional reactions. A dedicated, hard-working leader with a rich inner life, he is nevertheless unprepared for such assaults. As one of his arch critics reflects, "You don't talk about style with this guy. He's all substance. As if substance was ever enough!" TV listings often note that a film contains "adult situations," one of our era's most ludicrous euphemisms. But Saving Miss Oliver's gives us true adult situations: bedroom scenes featuring conversation over the meaning of a life's work, stormy altercations in the head's office about who should judge a teacher's performance, and tense student meetings where control of the moment depends on just the right phrase or gesture to avoid unleashing chaos. There are also scenes that distill a lifetime's educational experience into a crystalline moment, as in a class's intense reading of a Frost poem, in which Davenport captures the mind of both pupil and teacher: "All she knows is that if she writes down everything her teacher says, she'll be safe. And all he knows is he wants to give her poetry, the skill of reading it that engenders the love of it that will last her who

school days come to life!

School days come to life in this novel about a new headmaster trying to make his way in a girls' school long dominated by its founder. Steve Davenport gives us many perspectives: the teachers, the trustees, the students, the secretaries, along with a variety of scenes-- sad, funny, edgy, strange, and so on. We appreciate the difficulties people face as they struggle to make the school succeed against the inevitable obstacles, personal clashes, budget problems, the pressure to go co-ed. The book itself is educational! But if it is instructive, it is also entertaining, very much so. I enjoyed it and recommend it.