The Secret School

First sentence: On a cool Monday morning in early April 1925, Ida Bidson, aged fourteen, carefully guided her family's battered Model T Ford along a narrow, twisting dirt road in Elk Valley, Colorado. "Brake and clutch!" she shouted. Ida, only four-feet-eleven and unable to reach the floor of the car, knelt on the torn seat and gripped the steering wheel tightly. Her seven-year-old brother, Felix, hunched on the floor before her and used his hands to push the brake and clutch pedals down.

Premise/plot: Ida desperately wants the chance to go to high school. Ultimately she wants to go to "normal school" and get her teaching certificate as well. But this eighth grader may not get the chance to graduate eighth grade dashing all her future show more dreams. Why? Well, their current teacher is leaving abruptly--a family emergency. The school board had decided to end the term early. The two eighth graders wouldn't get a chance to take their final [final, final] exams and graduate. The two wouldn't be permitted to go on to high school the next school term. But Ida, well, she has BIG dreams. And when someone suggests that she should be their teacher for the rest of the term, well, it makes a lot of sense. It has risks, for sure. She'll be a secret teacher at a secret school. Will she get a chance to take her exam? Will she be going to high school after all?

My thoughts: I love, love, love stories of one-room schoolhouses. This one was a PERFECTLY PERFECT fit for me. I loved getting to know Ida. I loved getting to know all her classmates/students. I felt the story was fleshed out. It felt very REAL. I cared about these students and their families. I wanted more, more, more.

I don't know WHY I'm just now discovering this one. But I am super thankful I read it. show less

Honestly, I think that I would have liked this better with the cover by Frazee. I'm glad it was a quick read; too much was too earnest & too convenient, written for the themes.

"Unhappy folks do unhappy things."
An important message, in this era of maga & book banners. I wonder if they'd like this book? It's about bootstraps, hard work, white, presumably straight & Christian, seems fine... but at core maybe it's a little too subversive... sometimes I think that the extremists would like kids not to read much at all....

This spunky girl takes on almost more than she can haul tale seriously pushes the bounds of credulity but stays charming enough that we want to believe and doesn't quite cloy.

This is one of those slim children's paperbacks that populate classroom bookshelves in gradeschools, but since it is by Avi, you know it is made from good stuff. This was different from some of the other Avi books I've read -- we all know The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is one of my favorites -- in the fact that the adventure is a little more subdued, a little more ordinary. It is still adventure, however, and it's of the educational kind, which teachers will appreciate. And, just because your teachers like it, doesn't make it a boring book. :) It may not appeal to the short attention spans of speed-craving 21st century youths, but it's a pleasant book none the less.

I chose this book because Avi is a well-known author, and I wanted to read more of his books. This story takes place in Colorado in 1925. 14-year-old Ida Bidson attends a one-room schoolhouse with her younger brother Felix. Just a couple of months before the end of the school, the teacher leaves and the school board decides to close the school. That means Ida can’t take the exam to complete the 8th grade and go to high school in the fall. She wants to be a teacher, and doesn’t want to repeat a year of school in order to achieve her dream. She and the other kids come up with a plan to keep the school open. Ida decides to be the teacher, but all the kids have to keep it secret. As the teacher and a student at the same time, it is hard show more for her to manage everything, but she doesn’t want to give up.

This story has some funny scenes and is suspenseful. I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen to Ida and the school. Would someone find out about the secret school and close it down? Would Ida get in trouble for teaching without a license? Does she give up or reach her goal? Ida is an interesting character. She loves learning, but also has to help her parents on their farm. The school is too far away to walk to, so she and her brother go by car over the mountain roads. She is too short to reach the pedals, so she steers while her younger brother works the gas and brake pedals. show less

This is an engaging story about very determined and hard-working children. Because they are farm children, they have great responsibilities at home and at school. Ida's parents support her but need her on the farm--so they stress that she keep up with her farm duties even though she's taken on extra responsibilities at the school. They also warn her that she cannot go onto high school unless she can find free room and board (because they can't afford to send her). Similarly, a boy named Herbert dreams of running off to join the navy to escape his difficult situation at home with a father who doesn't value education at all. Readers will gain a good sense of the times in terms of inventions and daily life for rural children in 1925.

This show more would make a good story for classroom teachers to read out loud (a chapter at a time) to their class. They could incorporate some of the inventions mentioned in the book, like radios and cars, in science units to learn how these work. They could also reflect on their role as students and what school and learning mean to them. Ida is very inspirational because she values learning so much and works extremely hard to make her dreams come true. Students could write about their dreams and what they need to learn to achieve them. show less

Avi is one of the authors that I always expect great things from, and I am never disappointed when I read one of his books. The Secret School is about a fourth grade reading level, but perfect for a class that I teach of struggling readers. This quick read (about 150 pages, but larger print than normal) is about a valley of farmer's children that go to school in a one room schoolhouse. Their teacher is leaving because her mother is ill and the school board has decided to close the school. Then a student (Tom) decides that they could continue going to school if one of the other students (Ida) becomes the teacher. After a night of thinking about it, Ida decides that if the whole class agrees on it, then she will take over as teacher. The show more only thing is, they can't let the school board know, so the secret school is born. Ida learns that it is difficult becoming the teacher, as well as studying herself and working on the farm, but for the most part everything goes well, until...
I'm sure that you can figure out some of the problems that erupt when you have a secret school, but you'll have to read the story to find out more. All in all, this is a great book that can get student's thinking about what it was like when everyone went to school in the same room regardless of age. There are lessons about motivation and helping one another as well. As a teacher, I would encourage others to take a deeper look at what it would be like if we were not forced to get an education. I think that if our students begin to really look at what privileges they have now, they might not be so upset when they have to get up in the morning or do their homework. Also, there are tons of history lessons that can pop up from discussing this book.
It's a small book but can lead off to greater things. I highly recommend it to beginning novel readers, struggling older readers, or teachers that want something quick and sweet to start off their units. show less