Specht, Robert. Tisha: the Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness. St, Martin’s Press, 1976.
Reason read: October is the month Alaskans celebrate Alaska Day. I also needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book about a teacher.
Alaska, 1927. Anne Hobbs has traveled by ornery pony to be a teacher in the Alaskan remote village of Chicken. Tisha is a true story as told to Robert Specht. Barely twenty years old, Anne begins her adventure in Chicken battling sub-zero cold winters and even more frigid prejudiced hearts. The natives of Alaska are considered lesser people even though it is their land. The word siwash is derogatory, both as a noun and a verb. Even the children are not exempt from cruel words and actions of the white community. Anne is not fazed by the immature behavior of the white community and, after developing a fondness for one such “half breed” child named Chuck, insists he attend her school. The taunts and threats now targeting Anne grow louder when she develops an even stronger fondness for a “half breed” adult named Fred. It isn’t until Anne and Fred survive a terrible tragedy that the community starts to slowly come around.
Line I liked, “So I knew better than to judge somebody from what somebody else said” (p 129).
Author fact: According to the back flap of Tisha, Specht graduated from CCNY at 32 years old. At the time of publication he was working on a sequel to Tisha.
Book trivia: Other publications of Tisha credit Anne Purdy as coauthor. The title Tisha comes from young Chuck. With his lisp he couldn’t say teacher properly.
Playlist: “Home Sweet Home”, “Home on the Range”, Yes Sir, That’s My Baby”, O Susanna”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “Sweet Rosie O’Grady”, “Auld Lang Syne”, “Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee Ay”, “Yankee Doodle”, “Little Brown Jug”, and “Turkey in the Straw”.
Nancy said: Pearl called Tisha a good companion to Benedict and Nancy’s Freeman’s novel, Mrs. Mike. Indeed, the inside flap of Tisha also mentions Mrs. Mike.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “All Set for Alaska” (p 15).
~*LunaSea*~ 