Saving Miss Oliver's

Stephen Davenport

Description

The fate of the beloved school is hanging in the balance. . .

"From the very first paragraphs, Saving Miss Oliver's is an engaging read and is very highly recommended to all general fiction readers." —Midwest Book Review

"There are moments here that indicate that Davenport, who, as his bio notes, 'had a long career in education,' was probably an excellent teacher, like a scene in which Francis explicates a Robert Frost poem with his class, and there are some wonderful students, like the head of the school newspaper who is conducting research about the sex lives of students. . . A book for anyone who's wondered about the inner workings and worries of a school administration." —Kirkus Reviews

The prestigious boarding school Miss Oliver's School for Girls is on the cusp of going under. The trustees just fired the headmistress of the last thirty-five years, and the alumnae and students are angry and determined to hate her successor, the new--and male--head Fred Kindler. If only he can gain the support of the legendary senior teacher Francis Plummer, then Fred might have a fighting chance to save the school; but no one except Francis's wife and the school librarian, Peggy, is willing to give Fred a chance.

With Fred's career on the line and the Plummers' marriage at stake, will Miss Oliver's survive to be the school it once was?

Even in that last year of her reign, Marjorie Boyd had insisted that the graduation exercise take place exactly at noon.

“When the sun is at the top of the sky!” she declared—as she had every year for the thirty-five years she had been headmistress of Miss Oliver’s School for Girls. “Time stands still for just a little instant right then. And people notice things. They see! And what they see is the graduation of young women! Females! From a school founded by a woman, designed by women, run by a woman, with a curriculum that focuses on the way women learn! I want this celebration to take place exactly at noon, in the bright spangle of the June sunshine, so the world can see the superiority of the result!” Marjorie demanded once again, still dominant at the very end in spite of her dismissal. She would be the headmistress till July 1, when her contract expired. Until then, her will would prevail.

Even her opponents understood that it was Marjorie’s vivid leadership that had made the school into a community so beloved of its students and alumnae (who were taking their seats now in the audience as the noon hour neared) that it had to be saved from the flaws of the very woman who had made it what it was. Founded by Miss Edith Oliver in 1928 and standing on ground once occupied by a Pequot Indian village in Fieldington, Connecticut, a complacent suburb twenty miles south of Hartford on the Connecticut River, the school that Marjorie created was a boarding school, a world apart, whose intense culture of academic and artistic richness was celebrated in idiosyncratic rituals sacred to its members.

“But it will be too hot at noon,” the more practical-minded members of the faculty had objected once again in an argument that for senior faculty members Francis and Peggy Plummer had become an old refrain. They were like theatergoers watching a play whose ending they had memorized.

“No, it won’t,” Marjorie replied.

“How do you know it won’t?”

“I just do,” she said, standing up to end the meeting. For meetings always ended when Marjorie stood up—and began instantly when she sat down. Francis and Peggy understood that what Marjorie meant was that she would cause the weather to be perfect for their beloved young women by the sheer power of her will. The weather had always been perfect for each of the thirty-three graduation ceremonies in which Peggy and Francis had been on the faculty—and that day, June 10, 1991, was no exception.

Sujets

• Univers ado
• Classiques ados
• Fiction ado
• Fiction Ado
• Prep School
• Boarding School
• indigenous
• Native American
• Young Adult Fiction
• Nueva Inglaterra
• Young adult
• Native Americans
• School
• Education
• Pequot
• New England
• Connecticut
• Classiques Ados

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 18 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• EAN13: 9781513261331
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Saving Miss Oliver s
It s no surprise that Saving Miss Oliver s is informed by a compassionate knowledge of the lives of all people who inhabit independent schools. After all, the book s author spent years teaching at and leading this kind of institution, and later was one of the nation s top school consultants. He knows the territory.
What may surprise, though, is that the book is such a strong, beautifully wrought, engaging novel. As one reads along, it becomes clear that Davenport writes much too well and feels far too deeply for his complex, passionately human characters to resort to the hype and melodrama that so often maim school novels. Rather, he creates his figures and then lets them live, struggle, and develop in ways that are frequently moving and always honestly related.
In other words, the book steps beyond its genre. And in so doing it powerfully reminds us that real people are at the heart of any first-rate school. Their integrity, strength of character, hope for the world, and courage are the capital good schools are always built on. Davenport knows this. At the end of Saving Miss Oliver s , so will you. -Peter Tacy, Former Executive Director of the Association of Independent Schools and Head of the Marvelwood School, Kent, CT
This book caught me by surprise-a surprise I would recommend to everyone. On the face of it, the story is about a difficult leadership transition in a well-established girls school that is experiencing hard times. It is much more. Mr. Davenport weaves an intricate tapestry of institutional and cultural history, and minefields in independent school leadership. His characters jump off the page and made me keep reading to find out what they were thinking, how they developed, and what they did next. I was enthralled by the stories within the story and moved to tears by the strength and bravery of the characters who so quickly became my friends and acquaintances. This is a story of struggle and disappointment, but most of all, it is a story about wisdom and hope. -Jessie-Lea Abbott, Head of School, Katherine Delmar Burke School, San Francisco, CA
Steve Davenport is a consummate schoolmaster and a gifted writer. In this splendid first novel, Davenport builds on all the other exceptional school novels: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Rector of Justin, The Headmaster s Papers and The River King. Saving Miss Oliver s is a must read for anyone who appreciates the seasons of a school s life and the lives of people who make schools work. -Peter Buttenheim, Sanford School, Hockessin, DE
Steve Davenport s novel is fast-paced, entertaining and singularly evocative of the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a boarding school. Steve knows schools, and he brings us face to face with their passions, their absurdities and their virtues-especially when it comes to schools for girls. -Rachel Belash, Former Head of Miss Porter s School, Farmington, CT
Saving Miss Oliver s is a fascinating novel, a school story vibrant with personalities, crises, hopes, idealism, laughter, tears, struggle and soaring spirit. Anyone who has ever been a student or administrator or trustee or parent in a school will find the book riveting, and will stop again and again with recognition, shock and delight. The reader will care intensely about the persons and events in this book, the drama and comedy alive in it. -David Mallery, Seminar Leader and Consultant to Schools in the U.S. and Abroad
If you are an educator and care about leadership and the role played by change in the life of a school, read this wonderful book. -Rod Napier, President of the Napier Group, Consultant, and Author of The Courage to Act and Intentional Design and the Process of Change
S AVING M ISS O LIVER S
S AVING M ISS O LIVER S
A N OVEL
S TEPHEN D AVENPORT
Text 2018 by Stephen Davenport
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or schools of any of the characters or schools in the novel is coincidental and unintended.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davenport, Stephen, author.
Title: Saving Miss Oliver s : a novel / by Stephen Davenport.
Description: Berkeley, CA : Graphic Arts Books, [2018]
Identifiers: LCCN 2018005418 | ISBN 9781513261317 (softcover) | ISBN 9781513261324 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781513261331 (ebk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Women school principals--Fiction. | Boarding schools--Fiction. | Teaching--Fiction. | Girls--Fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3604.A9427 S28 2018 | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005418
Front Cover: Raymond Forbes LLC/ Stocksy.com
Excerpt from Home Burial, copyright 1969 by Robert Frost. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LCC.
Excerpt from Two Tramps in Mud Time, by Robert Frost.
Published by WestWinds Press
An imprint of

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Printed in the U.S.A.
Proudly distributed by Ingram Publisher Services.
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Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Marketing Manager: Angela Zbornik
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T O J OANNA
C ONTENTS
B OOK O NE : S UMMER
O NE
T WO
T HREE
F OUR
F IVE
S IX
S EVEN
E IGHT
B OOK T WO : F ALL T ERM
N INE
T EN
E LEVEN
T WELVE
T HIRTEEN
F OURTEEN
F IFTEEN
S IXTEEN
S EVENTEEN
E IGHTEEN
B OOK T HREE : W INTER T ERM
N INETEEN
T WENTY
T WENTY-ONE
T WENTY-TWO
T WENTY-THREE
B OOK F OUR : S PRING T ERM
T WENTY-FOUR
T WENTY-FIVE
T WENTY-SIX
T WENTY-SEVEN
T WENTY-EIGHT
T WENTY-NINE
T HIRTY
T HIRTY-ONE
T HIRTY-TWO
T HIRTY-THREE
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
B OOK O NE : S UMMER
O NE
E ven in that last year of her reign, Marjorie Boyd had insisted that the graduation exercise take place exactly at noon.
When the sun is at the top of the sky! she declared-as she had every year for the thirty-five years she had been headmistress of Miss Oliver s School for Girls. Time stands still for just a little instant right then. And people notice things. They see! And what they see is the graduation of young women! Females! From a school founded by a woman, designed by women, run by a woman, with a curriculum that focuses on the way women learn! I want this celebration to take place exactly at noon, in the bright spangle of the June sunshine, so the world can see the superiority of the result! Marjorie demanded once again, still dominant at the very end in spite of her dismissal. She would be the headmistress till July 1, when her contract expired. Until then, her will would prevail.
Even her opponents understood that it was Marjorie s vivid leadership that had made the school into a community so beloved of its students and alumnae (who were taking their seats now in the audience as the noon hour neared) that it had to be saved from the flaws of the very woman who had made it what it was. Founded by Miss Edith Oliver in 1928 and standing on ground once occupied by a Pequot Indian village in Fieldington, Connecticut, a complacent suburb twenty miles south of Hartford on the Connecticut River, the school that Marjorie created was a boarding school, a world apart, whose intense culture of academic and artistic richness was celebrated in idiosyncratic rituals sacred to its members.
But it will be too hot at noon, the more practical-minded members of the faculty had objected once again in an argument that for senior faculty members Francis and Peggy Plummer had become an old refrain. They were like theatergoers watching a play whose ending they had memorized.
No, it won t, Marjorie replied.
How do you know it won t?
I just do, she said, standing up to end the meeting. For meetings always ended when Marjorie stood up-and began instantly when she sat down. Francis and Peggy understood that what Marjorie meant was that she would push the weather to be perfect for their beloved young women by the sheer power of her will. The weather had always been perfect for each of the thirty-three graduation ceremonies in which Peggy and Francis had been on the faculty-and that day, June 10, 1991, was no exception.
Now the clock in the library s steeple chimed the noon hour, and Marjorie Boyd was standing. She strode across the dais to the microphone. The graduating class sat in the honored position to the left of the dais, their white dresses glistening in the sunshine. The sky was an ethereal blue, cloudless, and under it the green lawns swept to the edge of the acres of forest that lined the river. Behind the dais a huge three-hundred-year-old maple spread its branches, and Francis imagined a family of Pequot Indians sitting in its shade. The scent of clipped grass rose. In the audience the mothers wore big multicolored hats against the sun, and behind them the gleaming white clapboards of the campus buildings formed an embracing circle.
Standing at the microphone, Marjorie didn t look much older to Peggy and Francis than when she had first hired them thirty-three years ago immediately after their marriage-Peggy as the school s librarian, and Francis as a teacher of math and soon after also of English-assigning them too as dorm parents in what was then a brand-new dormitory. Marjorie still wore her long brown hair, now streaked with gray, in a schoolmarmish bun at the back of her neck. Her reading glasses still rested on her bosom, suspended from a black string around her neck. You were Oliver girls, they heard Marjorie say, and Francis reached to hold Peggy s hand. They knew what she was going to say next, and when she said it- Now you are Oliver women ! -giving the word a glory, Peggy started to cry. She was surprised at her sudden melting. For up to this moment she had managed to assuage her grief over Marjorie s d