The Teacher's Funeral Summary
Richard Peck

The Teacher's Funeral Overview

Richard Peck's young reader book, The Teacher's Funeral, is told from the perspective of a youngster named Russell Culver in rural Indiana in the early 1900s. Russell is dreading the opening of school, but the death of the only teacher is a ray of hope that school might be canceled entirely. When Russell's sister, Tansy, leaves high school to become their teacher, Russell discovers that he wants Tansy to succeed and that learning is not so bad. Told with humor and the typical attitudes of rural America in an era long gone, the novel's main themes are the effects of aging, levels of authority, the importance of support, and living one's best life. Life in rural Indiana during the early 1900s serves as a motif.