A Country Schoolhouse

Tales from a small country school

In 1940, Grandpa's country school had no lunchroom or indoor bathroom and used wood-burning stoves for heat, but it wasn't completely different from today's schools. Students studied spelling and geography, United States and world history, and learned the names of all the United States presidents. And Grandpa was always the smartest -- that is, up until fifth grade, when Kaye Brush arrived.

With her sprightly watercolor-and-ink illustrations, including endpapers featuring a quaint map of the community, Lynne Barasch draws on family history to give today's schoolchildren a charming inside-the-classroom look at life and learning in a three-room country schoolhouse.