Children of My Heart - Post 3

Part three of Children of My Heart is the shortest part in the book, but I found it more interesting than the first one. Although the entire book is in the perspective/memories of the teacher, the characters jump around a lot. As soon as you get used to a character and grow to love them, they are shuffled around and you have to start again. However, in the part two all of the characters were maintained throughout the entire section. There was one main foucus in part two, and that was Andre.
In part two the teacher is at a new school, and she is the only teacher. She teaches a class of forty students from first to eighth year. Andre is one of her students. He has the farthest to walk to school, two and a half miles, and he has the most chores to do at home. Andre's home life is hard. His father works hard to make enough money to pay the bills, to do this he has to got to a neighbouring village over the winter time. He leaves his two sons Andre and Emile to look after the household, the animals and the pregnant mother. Andre's Mom has hard pregnancies, she is forced to stay in bed after the first few months or she risks losing the baby. As winter approaches, Andre is forced to drop out of school. The young teacher always sits at her desk, waiting for Andre to come back to school, but he never comes.
As she changed schools in this part, I think that this will happen again in the third and final part. It will probably take place a few more years in the future, so she has some more experience. As the time passes I think that the variety of Immagrants will increase.
I'm really interested to see how the story line will turn out. There hasn't really been a plot to the story. So far the major events have been a child does something heartbreaking or touching. The teacher then learns from these events and becomes a better person. If it continues with this trend I don't think the Climax will be very exciting.

Children of My Heart - Post 2

Now that part one is complete, I am left amazed. Unlike the first half of part one there wasn't a single child per chapter, but a family of children of the rest of part one. Through these chapters you really get to understand how devoted the teacher is.
The Demetrioff family consists of a mother, a father, and five children. The children have plagued the teachers since their arrival at the school. The father, who owns a tannery, will often pull the children out for weeks on end to work. On top of the that, the children just choose not to learn. "There is not one Demetrioff, whoever passed his year. When a teacher's had one of them the second year in a row she just pushes a little: she gives him a fifty percent and away he goes to the next class up. " (Pg 57) One of the other teachers named Anna, who just had her first Demetrioff, was having trouble getting him to pay attention and do work. To get some help Anna wrote a letter to his father. Unfortunately, when the father gets the letter he is outraged. He comes to the class room and beats his son in front of the class. He gets sentenced to three months in jail, but his wife in children would not survive without him. The family bands together and pleads his case getting him out of jail.
The main character, whose name is yet to be revealed, eventually gets a demetrioff of her own. In the beginning, she had a lot of trouble getting him to remember what he'd learned. "'The Demetrioffs always forget today what they learned yesterday. But sometimes part of it floats back to them, like a dream." (Pg 67) However, he loves to copy the alphabet and the teacher uses this to her advantage. She wouldn't let him copy out letters, until he could tell her what each letter was and what sounds they make.
The style of the story is something i've only seen a handful of time. It is almost like a diary or the teacher reliving her memories. I find this interesting because it really changes a lot in the story. I was under the impression that all of these children were in the same class, but in the last section she starts off without a Demetrioff and ends with one. This shows there is no timeline to the story, just a series of chronological events. The diary aspect reminds me of sci-fi series (Beka Cooper) by Tamora Pierce. The entire series is Beka's Journal. Each chapter is a different day and each book a different point in time.
My guess for what happens in the book are if each chapter is a different year, the next part will be when she is older, maybe she will be teaching in highschool or a different grade. On the back it mentions immigration, which has already taken place as she has already tought someone from Poland and Russia. Whatever takes place, I am eager to read it.

Children of My Heart - Post 1

When I chose to read Children of My heart by Gabriella Roy I chose because I have known a few people who have read the book. When you read the back of the book, it tells you exactly what the story is. It is about a young female teacher, who touches the lives of the children she meets, while they help her grow. Part of me thought this book would be kind of boring. I thought it would be full of cliche moments that a typical teacher would go through, but i was wrong.

The book is split into three different parts, and I am about half way through the first part. So for the format of the story has been going through the teachers memory. Each chapter she has been talking about a different, child she has taught. Each child pulls on your heart strings in a different way. One character that has really stood out for me, is Nil. Nil's mother is of Ukranian decent, and has taught Nil how to sing songs of her homeland. The teacher is captivated by his voice and refers to him as "the Lark". Even the principle refers to him as the lark. "Well, with your thirty-eight sparrows you've caught a meadowlark this year. Do you know the lark? Let him sing and there's not a heart but is lightened." (Roy 39) I looked up meadowlark, and there were a few different types. The one the were refering to was the Western Meadowlark, which lives in the prairies. It is known for its "Flute-like warble song" (wikipedia). Little Nil goes around on the principles request to various locations. The teacher went with him to these places, which included a mental institution and nursing home. At each visit the audience doesn't want him to go home, and tries to get him to stay.

The part that draws to the story, is how the children teach the teacher valuable life lessons. An example of this is a little boy Clair. Clair comes from a broken home. His father left him at a young age, and his mother works the majority of the time, just to get by. Clair is always on his best behavior, he always gets his work done, and always has a smile for the young teacher. However, as christmas approaches his attitude changes. All of the children in the class want to by the teacher a present, but little Clair doesn't have the money. He eventually stops talking altogether, and is always near tears. On christmas day, there was a knock on the teachers door. Clair had walked through a blizzard to deliver a present for her. His mother had recieved an Irish Linen Hankie from one of the ladies she cared for, and wished it to go to her. The teacher recieved, expensive or flashy gifts from other students but this one meant the most to her. A family with nothing gave away what they recieved in hopes of showing some appreciation and gratitude for what she does.

Overall, Children of my heart has so far blown my expectations out of the water. The antics the children get into keep the pages turning, and warm your heart along the way. You can't help but get captivated by the children as the teacher has with each of their stories. For a young teacher, she has learned some valuable skills.