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Is That You, Miss Blue?
During her first term at boarding school, fifteen-year-old Flanders tries to cope with a variety of unusual people and situations and come to terms with her conflicting emotions about her recently separated parents.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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73 people want to read
About the author
M.E. Kerr
46 books58 followersM. E. Kerr was born Marijane Meaker in Auburn, New York. Her interest in writing began with her father, who loved to read, and her mother, who loved to tell stories of neighborhood gossip. Unable to find an agent to represent her work, Meaker became her own agent, and wrote articles and books under a series of pseudonyms: Vin Packer, Ann Aldrich, Laura Winston, M.E. Kerr, and Mary James. As M.E. Kerr, Meaker has produced over twenty novels for young adults and won multiple awards, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her lifetime contribution to young adult literature.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 6, 2018
I enjoyed this simple school story set in the fictional Charles School. This is a girls’ boarding school in America but the school could actually be any traditional English girls’ school in the fifties or sixties which had simply dropped into its place in the U.S.
The teacher in the title, Miss Blue is a lady who looks so much older than her actual years and the new girl Flanders Dunbar Brown wonders why Miss Blue has become as she is.
Carolyn Cardmaker, the first girl that Flanders meets on the train has a rather disparaging view of the school, the teachers and most of her fellow teachers and during the journey to the school she gives Flanders a full account of everyone as she sees them.
The story is simple, about girls growing up and learning about life and feelings and how they treat other people. Why do they giggle at Miss Blue, some out of spite, some because they don’t want to seem different, and some because the feel embarrassed either by or for Miss Blue. In the end they come to learn a lesson in tolerance and empathy through Miss Blue.
A simple easy young adult read, I enjoyed it because I needed something that was easy to read and about a less complicated and kinder life.
The teacher in the title, Miss Blue is a lady who looks so much older than her actual years and the new girl Flanders Dunbar Brown wonders why Miss Blue has become as she is.
Carolyn Cardmaker, the first girl that Flanders meets on the train has a rather disparaging view of the school, the teachers and most of her fellow teachers and during the journey to the school she gives Flanders a full account of everyone as she sees them.
The story is simple, about girls growing up and learning about life and feelings and how they treat other people. Why do they giggle at Miss Blue, some out of spite, some because they don’t want to seem different, and some because the feel embarrassed either by or for Miss Blue. In the end they come to learn a lesson in tolerance and empathy through Miss Blue.
A simple easy young adult read, I enjoyed it because I needed something that was easy to read and about a less complicated and kinder life.
November 4, 2009
On the train to her boarding school in Virginia, new girl Flanders Brown meets old girl, Cardmaker, who (being a tough talking, worldly wise, rebellious type) goes by her last name. In classic boarding school story style, Cardmaker takes it upon herself to become Flanders' informant on the ways of Charles, the Episcopalian single-sex school where they are headed. "If you're at Charles," Cardmaker tells Flanders, "you're either 1) Bright and Pitiful, the scholarships; or 2) On the ladder, the social climbers; 3) In the Way; or 4) Out of the ordinary." Cardmaker herself, as a "preacher's kid", is a number 1. She quickly pegs Flanders as a number 3, at which Flanders balks, as she hasn't faced that fact herself. Flanders' world has lately been turned upside-down by her mother running away with her father's research assistant, and she can't quite understand why her father doesn't seem to want her around as he starts up yet another wacky new age-y business venture in Maryland. Cardmaker also tells Flanders that contrary to what she had been told, the religious side of the school is not played down. "We have chapel every single evening. We go to church twice on Sunday. We have Bible every week. And we have Miss Blue who can hear Jesus."
Timid, friendless, and alarmingly pious, Miss Blue becomes the focus, and in some ways, the moral center of this novel. Flanders finds this teacher who is also her "faculty chum" just as pitiable and embarrassing as the rest of the girls do, yet after initially making fun of her, she finds herself feeling curiously protective of Miss Blue, who, startlingly, proves to be a brilliant science teacher. As the fall term progresses, Miss Blue's descent into what either may be religious mania or sainthood is paralleled, in a nicely subtle counterpoint, by Cardmaker's journey in the opposite direction, towards atheism. Aided and abetted by Agnes Thatcher, another new girl who is deaf (and hence a number 4 in Cardmaker's classification scheme) Cardmaker forms an atheists club, which Flanders resists joining even though Cardmaker and Agnes, difficult and obstreperous as they are, are her best friends.
I started this book prejudiced against M.E. Kerr. As an adolescent reader in the 1980s, during the tail end of Kerr's prime, I disdained her. I lumped her together with other YA writers, such as S.E. Hinton and Paul Zindel who I perceived as writing novels, about disaffected smoking teens with problem parents, aimed exactly at the sort of reader I was not. I'll just go reread Little Women again, thank you very much, and indeed, as an adolescent, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first few pages of this book (Cardmaker smokes!). However, I read about this book on Peter Sieruta's blog, and since it was a boarding school story and since he admires Kerr so much, and I am now more hardened (though still not a smoker) I decided to give it a try. It did take me quite a while to settle in to this book. There was a certain quality to Flanders' first person narration that made me feel like I was wearing a scratchy sweater next to my skin. There were some things that were jarring, and seemed thrown in to be gratuitously shocking. And yet...I ended up liking the book, angsty teen with problem parents and all. Cautiously, very cautiously, I might compare this school story to Antonia Forest's Kingscote books (Cardmaker reminded me of Tim from that series), in that they are both subversive takes on school life. But here the disconnect between an idealized school and its less than shining reality, and the hypocrisy of the people running it is far more overt, and I found myself being able to understand a little better why some fans of classic uncomplicated boarding school stories sometimes find Antonia Forest's books too prickly and uncomfortable to really love.
Final note: I'm too tired to go back and find a way to work this seamlessly into the review. I love The character of Agnes. She is so difficult and annoying and yet ultimately likable. For those of you who've read Dorothea Moore's The Only Day Girl, she reminded me of Sadie (is that her name? I'm referring to the girl who is blind) in that book.
Timid, friendless, and alarmingly pious, Miss Blue becomes the focus, and in some ways, the moral center of this novel. Flanders finds this teacher who is also her "faculty chum" just as pitiable and embarrassing as the rest of the girls do, yet after initially making fun of her, she finds herself feeling curiously protective of Miss Blue, who, startlingly, proves to be a brilliant science teacher. As the fall term progresses, Miss Blue's descent into what either may be religious mania or sainthood is paralleled, in a nicely subtle counterpoint, by Cardmaker's journey in the opposite direction, towards atheism. Aided and abetted by Agnes Thatcher, another new girl who is deaf (and hence a number 4 in Cardmaker's classification scheme) Cardmaker forms an atheists club, which Flanders resists joining even though Cardmaker and Agnes, difficult and obstreperous as they are, are her best friends.
I started this book prejudiced against M.E. Kerr. As an adolescent reader in the 1980s, during the tail end of Kerr's prime, I disdained her. I lumped her together with other YA writers, such as S.E. Hinton and Paul Zindel who I perceived as writing novels, about disaffected smoking teens with problem parents, aimed exactly at the sort of reader I was not. I'll just go reread Little Women again, thank you very much, and indeed, as an adolescent, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first few pages of this book (Cardmaker smokes!). However, I read about this book on Peter Sieruta's blog, and since it was a boarding school story and since he admires Kerr so much, and I am now more hardened (though still not a smoker) I decided to give it a try. It did take me quite a while to settle in to this book. There was a certain quality to Flanders' first person narration that made me feel like I was wearing a scratchy sweater next to my skin. There were some things that were jarring, and seemed thrown in to be gratuitously shocking. And yet...I ended up liking the book, angsty teen with problem parents and all. Cautiously, very cautiously, I might compare this school story to Antonia Forest's Kingscote books (Cardmaker reminded me of Tim from that series), in that they are both subversive takes on school life. But here the disconnect between an idealized school and its less than shining reality, and the hypocrisy of the people running it is far more overt, and I found myself being able to understand a little better why some fans of classic uncomplicated boarding school stories sometimes find Antonia Forest's books too prickly and uncomfortable to really love.
Final note: I'm too tired to go back and find a way to work this seamlessly into the review. I love The character of Agnes. She is so difficult and annoying and yet ultimately likable. For those of you who've read Dorothea Moore's The Only Day Girl, she reminded me of Sadie (is that her name? I'm referring to the girl who is blind) in that book.
November 2, 2018
I picked this up at the library book sale a few weeks ago. I thought I'd read it back in the day. Some elements of it seemed familiar, but I may be conflating it with the author's memoir, which I also read back then. (My computer won't let me link to books right now, but it's called Me Me Me Me Me (Not a Novel)). I remember that the author spent some time in a boarding school and quite a bit of the memoir was about that time in her life, as I recall.
Anyway, upon this read, this book was enjoyable, but not too deep. It's basically just a "year in the life" kind of thing. It touches on conformity, religiousness vs atheism, complicated relationships with parents, and similar topics.
Anyway, upon this read, this book was enjoyable, but not too deep. It's basically just a "year in the life" kind of thing. It touches on conformity, religiousness vs atheism, complicated relationships with parents, and similar topics.
August 14, 2016
I read this book for a book report when I was in fourth grade. My report said something to the effect of this was the worst book ever, it basically had no plot, and I couldn't even think of anything to write about because nothing happened. It is the only book I remember hating as a child. So I thought I'd read it again to see what was so awful.
What was so awful is that this book is not written for fourth graders. It is more of a teenager book and I'm not sure how my grade school librarian ended up giving it to me. (I seem to remember this is how I got my hands on it.) The book takes place in a Christian boarding school and is narrated by Flanders, a student at the school who was sent there by her unconventional, atheist father after her mother ran off with a much younger man. Flanders becomes friends with Cardmaker, a preacher's kid, and Agnes, a student who is deaf. The three of them rebel against the mainstream culture of the school and stand up for Miss Blue, the outcast teacher.
Miss Blue is the faculty resident in their dorm, and is a strange, yet sweet and genuine individual who has extreme faith in Jesus, to the point of having visions and experiences others call crazy. Although she doesn't agree with Miss Blue's religion, Flanders feels that Miss Blue is the best teacher in the school. The school administration sees it differently and feels Miss Blue is a liability.
All of this must have been way to complicated for me to understand as a fourth grader. It explores themes of religion, atheism, and basic issues in teenage life.
Miss Blue's character makes me really sad as an adult, but I'm sure I didn't understand it as a kid. Her character is intentionally not well developed and her past is full of mysteries, but she one is those people that is just too kind and innocent to live in such a cruel world.
I wish I still had my book report, or that I could somehow reenter my fourth grade head so I could understand how I processed this book at the time.
It wasn't a great book, but I didn't hate it, things did happen, and I'm glad I read it again.
What was so awful is that this book is not written for fourth graders. It is more of a teenager book and I'm not sure how my grade school librarian ended up giving it to me. (I seem to remember this is how I got my hands on it.) The book takes place in a Christian boarding school and is narrated by Flanders, a student at the school who was sent there by her unconventional, atheist father after her mother ran off with a much younger man. Flanders becomes friends with Cardmaker, a preacher's kid, and Agnes, a student who is deaf. The three of them rebel against the mainstream culture of the school and stand up for Miss Blue, the outcast teacher.
Miss Blue is the faculty resident in their dorm, and is a strange, yet sweet and genuine individual who has extreme faith in Jesus, to the point of having visions and experiences others call crazy. Although she doesn't agree with Miss Blue's religion, Flanders feels that Miss Blue is the best teacher in the school. The school administration sees it differently and feels Miss Blue is a liability.
All of this must have been way to complicated for me to understand as a fourth grader. It explores themes of religion, atheism, and basic issues in teenage life.
Miss Blue's character makes me really sad as an adult, but I'm sure I didn't understand it as a kid. Her character is intentionally not well developed and her past is full of mysteries, but she one is those people that is just too kind and innocent to live in such a cruel world.
I wish I still had my book report, or that I could somehow reenter my fourth grade head so I could understand how I processed this book at the time.
It wasn't a great book, but I didn't hate it, things did happen, and I'm glad I read it again.
September 15, 2018
Actually, only three stars, but Marijane Meaker (ME Kerr) reached over my shoulder, pressed five stars and then sicced her dog on me before I could change it back.
A coming of age story, the sophomore year in the life of Flanders Brown. The classic coming of age tale has the young protagonist seeing things one way at the beginning and very differently at the end and there is a moment/climax when the world seems to shift. At the end, those we had initially admired have come down in our opinion and those we didn't have risen in our esteem. The whole thing succeeds or fails on the quality of the characterization. Meaker is brilliant at this.
Good, efficient prose, an eye for the trenchant detail.
If you look you will see mostly 3-star reviews. Reading is a very personal thing and for many a novel must have a good story with few loose ends and an optimistic ending. I have a feeling Meaker despises that sort of thing. There is no plot to speak of and plenty of loose ends. Just like life itself.
It's bare bones coming of age and you have to be really good to pull it off. Okay, Marijane, call off the dog. I'm giving it 5-stars.
A coming of age story, the sophomore year in the life of Flanders Brown. The classic coming of age tale has the young protagonist seeing things one way at the beginning and very differently at the end and there is a moment/climax when the world seems to shift. At the end, those we had initially admired have come down in our opinion and those we didn't have risen in our esteem. The whole thing succeeds or fails on the quality of the characterization. Meaker is brilliant at this.
Good, efficient prose, an eye for the trenchant detail.
If you look you will see mostly 3-star reviews. Reading is a very personal thing and for many a novel must have a good story with few loose ends and an optimistic ending. I have a feeling Meaker despises that sort of thing. There is no plot to speak of and plenty of loose ends. Just like life itself.
It's bare bones coming of age and you have to be really good to pull it off. Okay, Marijane, call off the dog. I'm giving it 5-stars.
October 4, 2017
First of two young adult novels I am rereading after 40 years. I read a lot of M. E. Kerr when I was a teenager in the '70s, and for the most part she was too angsty for me even then. But this one I liked and always remembered. It's a boarding school novel, which I always enjoyed, but what I really remembered about it was Mary, Queen of Scots' death cell prayer, which was printed on a portrait in the novel. I really loved the prayer and wrote it, along with other bits of poetry I loved, in a notebook I kept for the purpose (and wish I still had). I've looked for the prayer over the years and never been able to find it. Turns out it was misattributed. The original version (Kerr simplified it in the novel), was written by a woman named Mary Stewart in 1904, but was frequently republished as written by Mary, Queen of Scots (from the House of Stuart, see?). Nowadays, I would recognize that the language of the prayer (either in the original, or in Kerr's reworking) was absolutely not Elizabethan, but that went over my 15 year old head at the time.
Here is the original version of the prayer, which I still quite like:
Keep us, O God, from pettiness; let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with faultfinding and leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretenses and meet each other, face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous.
Let us take time for all things; make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put in action our better impulses-straightforward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize it is the little things of life that create difficulties; that in the big things of life we are as one.
Oh, Lord, let us not forget to be kind.
Here is the original version of the prayer, which I still quite like:
Keep us, O God, from pettiness; let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with faultfinding and leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretenses and meet each other, face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous.
Let us take time for all things; make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put in action our better impulses-straightforward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize it is the little things of life that create difficulties; that in the big things of life we are as one.
Oh, Lord, let us not forget to be kind.
September 7, 2018
An unusual book, set in an American boarding school I'm not entirely sure when. Flanders is the new girl who is quickly taken under the wing of the rebellious Cardmaker. We're introduced to a range of different characters, including the eponymous Miss Blue and watch as relationships between them develop.
Miss Blue is a figure of fun, intensely religious and mocked behind her back for her eccentricities. Flanders needs to decide whether to join in with this behaviour or make her own decisions about how to treat others. I liked the summary of what happened to most of the characters at the end of the book even though that didn't include Miss Blue herself.
Miss Blue is a figure of fun, intensely religious and mocked behind her back for her eccentricities. Flanders needs to decide whether to join in with this behaviour or make her own decisions about how to treat others. I liked the summary of what happened to most of the characters at the end of the book even though that didn't include Miss Blue herself.
April 2, 2014
Another winner by one of the best YA writers of all time. Fourteen year-old Flanders Brown learns about life, religion, loneliness and the strange teacher Miss Blue - all in the space of a few months at Charles School, a private boarding school in Virginia.
January 15, 2022
I wasn't sure if I had read this before--I read a lot of boarding school books as a kid. But as soon as I started reading it, I recognized the scene of the main character meeting a more sophisticated (?)/more cynical girl who tells her what to expect at the school. I also remembered the scenes at the school dances.
This book is a lot more weird or offbeat than M.E. Kerr's others (or possibly I need to re-read them too!) Usually when I read a YA book from the '70s it feels like a historical artifact but this one did feel dated. Probably it's because the novel makes fun of little people, people who are intersex, people with microcephaly--and that's just in the first 20 pages. So if this book stays in the library there are definitely people who are going to end up feeling hurt when they read it. On the other hand, M.E. Kerr is such a cracking great writer. For example, the character of Agnes Thatcher should be an offensive train wreck--she's a deaf girl who can magically lip read everyone 100% (even on TV) but makes horrible bleating sounds and is always hitting everyone. But Agnes is a D.H.-Lawrence-o-phile, has all the best lines, always comes out on top, and is a social success who makes tons of friends. I like that no one in the story is all good or all bad, and that things are kind of messy and not fully resolved. The only thing that's all bad is hypocrisy. Seems very realistic. There are many colorful characters sprinkled throughout. Two of the women teachers are in love, and I'm sure this went right over my head when I was a kid.
This book is a lot more weird or offbeat than M.E. Kerr's others (or possibly I need to re-read them too!) Usually when I read a YA book from the '70s it feels like a historical artifact but this one did feel dated. Probably it's because the novel makes fun of little people, people who are intersex, people with microcephaly--and that's just in the first 20 pages. So if this book stays in the library there are definitely people who are going to end up feeling hurt when they read it. On the other hand, M.E. Kerr is such a cracking great writer. For example, the character of Agnes Thatcher should be an offensive train wreck--she's a deaf girl who can magically lip read everyone 100% (even on TV) but makes horrible bleating sounds and is always hitting everyone. But Agnes is a D.H.-Lawrence-o-phile, has all the best lines, always comes out on top, and is a social success who makes tons of friends. I like that no one in the story is all good or all bad, and that things are kind of messy and not fully resolved. The only thing that's all bad is hypocrisy. Seems very realistic. There are many colorful characters sprinkled throughout. Two of the women teachers are in love, and I'm sure this went right over my head when I was a kid.
May 28, 2021
No one writes dialogue like M.E. Kerr! She is fearless -- and not afraid to portray awkward protagonists who feel lost, confused and desperate.
I just looked her up on Wikipedia. I'm seriously amazed and impressed by the breadth of her literary legacy.
In this story, I never read Flanders's interest in Miss Blue as a crush, as Wikipedia says it is. I think Flanders admired her independence, but she also recognized that Miss Blue might be mentally ill. That's an incredible load for a teenager to bear, and this heartbreaking story explores it in brutally realistic - and sometimes very funny - ways.
I just looked her up on Wikipedia. I'm seriously amazed and impressed by the breadth of her literary legacy.
In this story, I never read Flanders's interest in Miss Blue as a crush, as Wikipedia says it is. I think Flanders admired her independence, but she also recognized that Miss Blue might be mentally ill. That's an incredible load for a teenager to bear, and this heartbreaking story explores it in brutally realistic - and sometimes very funny - ways.
August 24, 2012
Our story follows the sophomore year of Flanders Brown at Charles School. Charles is a private (Episcopalian) school in Virginia. Flanders Dunbar Brown is the daughter of very unconventional parents, and she is also the narrator of our story.
Flanders is new to Charles. Luckily, she meets the wise (and wise-cracking) Carolyn Cardmaker on the train to Charles. Cardmaker shows Flanders the ropes at Charles: gives her the lowdown on students and teachers, sets her up with a date for the dance, and befriends Flanders when she needs someone the most.
Teachers, students, religions, and one’s personal/private beliefs are all examined in this strangely serious novel for young adults.
Flanders is new to Charles. Luckily, she meets the wise (and wise-cracking) Carolyn Cardmaker on the train to Charles. Cardmaker shows Flanders the ropes at Charles: gives her the lowdown on students and teachers, sets her up with a date for the dance, and befriends Flanders when she needs someone the most.
Teachers, students, religions, and one’s personal/private beliefs are all examined in this strangely serious novel for young adults.
March 12, 2015
Here's the Goodreads synopses:
During her first term at boarding school, fifteen-year-old Flanders tries to cope with a variety of unusual people and situations and come to terms with her conflicting emotions about her recently separated parents.
I felt like the "variety of unusual people" was huge! Seriously, for a book written in 1975, Flanders was introduced to just about everyone that fell outside the norm of the day. Probably a very eye opening book back in the day, right now, not so much.
During her first term at boarding school, fifteen-year-old Flanders tries to cope with a variety of unusual people and situations and come to terms with her conflicting emotions about her recently separated parents.
I felt like the "variety of unusual people" was huge! Seriously, for a book written in 1975, Flanders was introduced to just about everyone that fell outside the norm of the day. Probably a very eye opening book back in the day, right now, not so much.
September 30, 2009
I learned that even if you are dumb. You still have feelings. They also know stuff they just can't say it becasue they can't but they may right it on a note. That even though you a person may be kind of akward you have to deal with it and when another person like the boss finds out always tell the truth or you will be in big trouble.
October 11, 2015
Soobie a dodici anni:
Libro abbastanza bello. Flanders va ad un collegio religioso e lì si fa qualche amica che fonderà un gruppo d'arte. Alla fine una loro prof viene scacciata e loro le regalano una cosa appartenente alla scuola...
January 7, 2017
Coming of age story about Flanders, a fifteen year old girl, and lessons learned during a year at an Episcopalian boarding school. She tries to defend Miss Blue, her science teacher and dorm supervisor, while navigating the social protocols of the 60s-70s.
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