Tisha, by Robert Specht, is the story of Anne Hobbs, a young school teacher who moves to the Alaskan wilderness. She knows nothing about Alaska or living in the wilds or about the social conditions or customs in Alaska, but she is open to new experiences and certainly finds them in Alaska.

Anne was from Colorado where her father worked as a miner. When he was unemployed, she would be sent to her grandmother's in Missouri. Her grandmother was part Indian so Anne had no prejudice against Indians. It was her grandmother who instilled in her the desire to teach so she could travel anywhere. Anne "inherited" her sense of adventure from her grandmother and signed on to spend a year teaching in Chicken with the possibility of a second year in Eagle.

Anne is a person who respects other people for what they are, which isn't the attitude she finds in Alaska. There is a lot of prejudice against the Indians. The whites feel superior to them, and Anne faces problems in Chicken when she socializes with the Indians and accepts Indian children into the school. Throughout her stay in Chicken, she has problems with Mr. Vaughn and Angela Barrett, two of the three monikers of the school board.

Her problems intensify when she falls in love with Fred Purdy, a half-breed. The school board threatens her position in Eagle the following year if she continues to see Fred Purdy. He finally takes a job in another town trying to ease the strain on Anne and his mother. The problems in the town finally come to a head when Mary Angus, the mother of two half-breed Indian children, Chuck and Ethel, dies. Anne brings the children to live with her and then decides she wants to keep them and raise them as her own. She has the consent of their father, Joe Temple, who tells her that she is asking for trouble. The trouble comes in the form of a group of people kidnapping the children. Anne goes to Fred for help and the result is a sled chase across the Alaskan snow.

Her love for Fred continues but he refuses to marry her because he has no money and won't marry her until he can support her. She says she will wait and goes to Eagle to teach.

Anne is nineteen when she first arrived in Alaska in 1927. She was looking for adventure and she found it. But she also had a desire to help people, especially children, which is what led to her adopting Chuck and Ethel and so many other children over the years. At the end of her first year in Chicken, one of the men in the town said she was a true Alaskan, which is the highest complement anyone could have paid her.

The book is enjoyable reading as the reader learns the living and social conditions of the time in Alaska. There is none of the modern conveniences and the nearest doctor was one hundred fifty miles away. People fended for themselves and helped each other.

Tisha is a fast reading book. The reader will enjoy the characters and the experiences Anne has as she learned to cope with the people and the living conditions.