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.