39 pages • 1 hour read
Kirkpatrick HillThe Year of Miss Agnes
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Miss Agnes plays the children a record of the King's Choir church, from England. She explains that her father was a mathematics teacher at Cambridge, and she used to listen to this choir when she was little. Fred thinks that she will be happy to go home.
Now that they have finished Robin Hood, Miss Agnes begins to read Greek myths to the children. The ones about monsters are their favorites. After that, they read fairy tales, which remind Fred of the stories older people tell at fish camp, particularly about animals. When the children tell this to Miss Agnes, they start exchanging stories. She reads them a fairy tale, and the children tell her a native story, though Fred thinks they don't sound as good in English.
Chapter 13 Summary
Miss Agnes puts a Christmas tree up in the school, which Toby Joe and Plasker have chopped down. They weren't successful on their first try but succeeded on the second. The children decorate the tree and look at pictures of Christmas trees from other countries. They also learn Christmas songs.
At Christmas, the villagers who were out trapping come home; some go to church in Allakaket, while the remaining ones stay in town to see the children put on A Christmas Carol. Fred wants to be a ghost, but there is a lack of girls in the school, and Miss Agnes needs her for the part of the nephew's wife. The villagers come to watch; Old Miss Toby, for whom Mamma translates the play, appreciates it because of its lessons about greed and community spirit. There is a small celebration afterward, and Miss Agnes takes pictures. During the celebration, Grandpa tells the story of a priest who brought a camera to Allakaket when he was young, and how the flash scared everyone.
Later, Miss Agnes shows the pictures by projecting them on a sheet to life-size. The children have never seen pictures of themselves and stare. Fred finds herself unrecognizable; her hair is messy, and her smile looks like Bokko's and her father's. Miss Agnes also shows pictures from her travels, including some from Greece and England. The children see where she came from and are surprised when she tells them there are flowers on the trees there right now, since it is still cold in the village. Seeing the flowers, Fred understands how Miss Agnes could miss England so much.
Chapter 14 Summary
The children progress with their reading. Toby Joe reads magazines at the general store, and Jimmy Sam continues to progress. Miss Agnes gives them more complex books to read. Marie and the younger children still have trouble. Initially, they read Dick and Jane books, which Fred thinks are stupid, though she likes thinking about living in a place like they do with a friendly mother. Miss Agnes replaces those books with stories she writes for each child about their lives, writing new ones after several days. Fred becomes obsessed with hers. Marie is pleased to read about Miss Agnes's vision of her future, getting married and having children. They all exchange books with each other.
Miss Agnes has the students write stories as well. They don't have to pay attention to spelling or reality. Bokko signs hers, while the other students write about things that really happened to them. Fred writes about her grandfather's stories, Old Man Andreson, and magic. Miss Agnes tells each child what they are good at. When she gets to Fred, she says that Fred's special talent is writing stories, which pleases Fred.
Chapters 12-14 Analysis
The setting of the story further expands in this section, as the students learn more about England and perform A Christmas Carol. Their understanding of cultures outside of their own builds to the point that Fred’s tone turns wistful, thinking of the reasons Miss Agnes would want to return to England. Meanwhile, Miss Agnes’s ability to blend different traditions reaches new heights as villagers come into the schoolhouse to watch students perform the play. While individual villagers (such as Big Pete) have been in the schoolhouse before, this occasion marks the first time that many have gathered together there. This blending further emerges as Mamma translates the play for Old Miss Toby, who appreciates its overlap with her own values. This event also develops the theme of the importance of inclusion; though the students and the villagers all have different experiences of the play, they all benefit from it. Furthermore, Miss Agnes’s success in bringing everyone together stands in contrast to the priest in Grandpa’s story, who terrified villagers by using a camera with a flash.
As Miss Agnes helps her students continue to learn and grow, Fred starts to develop her talents as a storyteller, building on the theme of the importance of stories that through Miss Agnes’s readings foreshadowed. Miss Agnes’s stories about the children themselves continues the work of the timeline in situating them within a larger narrative history, rather than outside of it. Similarly, her encouraging them to write stories encourages them to find their own voices and take control of their own narratives, giving them agency they have never experienced with any other teacher.
