The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill Journal Entry 3

Dear Mr. W,

In the chapter I just read from The Year of Miss Agnes, there is an important theme that Fred tells the reader. When Bokko brings Fred’s lunch to school, Miss Agnes says that she must start coming to school too. Fred says, “it’s better to kick some instead of just sinking.” She said this after they learned about sign language for deaf people and reading for blind people. That’s called Braille, but she didn’t say that. Anyway, the point was that when you are in a difficult situation - in the story it’s being deaf, but they mention being blind too - you can either give up (sink) or kick some (try to stay above water). I can use this lesson when I’m frustrated, like with school work or with other people. It’s easy to just give up, but it takes work and effort to try. I want to try.

The genre of the book is historical fiction. First of all, it takes place in Alaska in 1948. The students are all surprised that the teacher is wearing pants. All the women wear dresses and skirts, not pants. They were talking about a war that just ended, and that was World War II. The older folks, like the grandparents, talked about living with only what you could find, hunt, or make, but now stores are opening and they can order things from catalogs. Their school only has one classroom with all grades. They don’t have Smart Boards or electronics, just old books and fat crayons. One crayon was even called “flesh” which made no sense to them because nobody they knew had skin that color. They don’t make that color anymore.

Sincerely,
Brian Fourth Grader