Courting Miss Amsel

I have read books by Kim Vogel Sawyer before, so I was excited to be offered Courting Miss Amsel from Bethany Publishers. The complimentary books I receive from Bethany are in exchange for my honest review.

Courting Miss Amsel is about a young schoolmarm. Edythe has left her home to teach school in a one-room schoolhouse. She left her younger sister Missy with their brother, and walked away from her dad, a selfish man who cares nothing for his children. The school's last teacher was a harsh taskmaster who disciplined the children when they failed to understand a concept in their studies. Edythe would rather teach from a positive standpoint, so she breaks the switch used for correction and promise to never use corporal punishment. Her students are overjoyed. One student, however, takes advantage of the promise and stirs up trouble on a continual basis. Edythe is faced with his antics, plus school board members that question her unusual ways of teaching. When they see sticks in the school yard with rope strung across them, they think the teacher is nuts. What they fail to see is a simple and fun way to teach longitude and latitude.

I really enjoyed this book. It was neat to read about a teacher who goes outside the box to teach her students. Kim Vogel Sawyer did a great job keeping me questioning... will Edythe be fired from her job? Will she trust that not ever father is like her own? Will she learn to trust God? How will she continue teaching her students when one child is determined to make things chaotic? And what would I do if I were in Edythe Amsel's shoes?