Lessons

by Bonnie Geisert

Summer was drawing to a close, and Rachel would soon return to school to begin fifth grade. Like many of her classmates, she was anxious about her friends, the strict Mrs. Kelly, and the timed arithmetic tests, but there was something else worrying Rachel, too. Ever since her baby brother, Matthew, was born, she couldn’t help but notice that her father seemed even more brooding and withdrawn than ever. Confused and concerned by his behavior, Rachel starts demanding answers—but the secret she uncovers raises more questions than it solves.

Author Bonnie Geisert transports readers back to a simpler time and place. Yet life on a rural South Dakota farm in the 1950s was not without its challenges, and Rachel soon discovers she has many lessons to learn, both in Mrs. Kelly’s classroom and beyond . . .

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2005

About the author

Bonnie Geisert grew up on a farm near Cresbard, South Dakota, and her childhood adventures there inspired many of the events in her Prairie trilogy. Ms.Geisert now lives in a small town in northern Illinois, where she still revels in beautiful prairie winters.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now while Bonnie Geisert's second children's historical fiction novel based on her 1950's rural South Dakota childhood is pretty much and definitely to be considered as the sequel to her Prairie Summer (and actually starts where Prairie Summer leaves off, in the fall of the same year, immediately after brother Matthew Lee's birth and therefore also at the beginning of the new school year), the main storyline and themes of Lessons are also and in fact considerably more heavy duty and potentially troubling than what is portrayed and depicted in Prairie Summer (even if one takes into account the father's sometimes volatile temperament, that he certainly does seem to be a rather hard taskmaster and is often massively critical of especially his daughter Rachel).

For in Lessons, first and foremost, young narrator Rachel Johnson observes and relates how her father has not only been increasingly sad and more and more withdrawn since the birth of baby Matthew but how he is also often drunk and increasingly scarily morose. And finally, after daring to confront her mother, Rachel is told that her father is actually rather unsuccessfully and with increasing emotional frustration dealing with unprocessed grief and seriously painful religious doubts that stem from the fact that unknown to Rachel and her sisters, even oldest sister Carol, the Johnsons' first born baby, an infant son named Roger Gene, died of influenza during a terrible winter blizzard before he could be baptised and that this had then prevented him from receiving a proper Christian, a proper Lutheran burial and that the pastor who denied their son's burial had also nastily and evilly told the grieving parents that their deceased baby, that Roger would not be saved, that he was not in God's grace due to his lack of having been baptised before he died of the flu (something that has very much affected, troubled and emotionally scarred especially the father, something that he ended up swallowing and trying to ignore, but also something that now, due to little Matthew's birth, is rearing its ugly head once more, causing heartbreak, grief, alcohol induced self-medication and a sense of hopelessness and of religious fear and terror for the father, who because his pastor had said that his unbaptised deceased infant son would not be saved, also kind of and sadly believes and is traumatised continuously and lastingly because of this). And even though Rachel's mother as a Methodist does in fact NOT believe in the concept and dogma of an unbaptised infant who dies not being in a state of innocence and divine grace, the father as a strict and traditional Lutheran obviously does (or at least is very much unsure and inclined to accept as the truth sent from above that his deceased first born might be languishing in limbo or worse unsaved), with his mental health and emotions sadly askew and troubled until Rachel decides to ask questions at church (at her Sunday School) and Reverent Meyer visits the Johnsons on their farm to explain and point out that while some Lutherans still believe that a an unbaptised infant who dies should not get a Christian burial and not be considered as being "with God" many Lutherans, inducing himself, are now considerably more tolerant.

And thankfully, Rachel's father does indeed trust and believe Reverend Meyer, with the latter's suggestion of reburying the firstborn son, reburying Roger Gene at the local cemetery granting healing and assuaging grief for both the father and the entire family (although it definitely does bother me more than a bit that it takes Reverend Meyer's words to make Mr. Johnson, to make the father see the light so to speak and to break him out of his shell, although I do indeed also very much appreciate the constant although yes indeed at times painful realism shown in Lessons and that Bonnie Geisert has not in any manner tried to deflect, suppress or sugar-coat this sad scenario away and that since she experienced her father having a religiously based mental health breakdown and crisis with regard to the death of his first born son during her own childhood, that of course Bonnie Geisert would also then present this in Lessons, in this here novel based on and portraying her own childhood as being obviously not always all that easy and innocently carefree).

A gentle and gracefully penned, emotionally evocative novel is Lessons and one which, aside from the emotionally heavy and at times painful depictions of the Johnson Family's struggles with religion and the father's emotional crises also does indeed still present a typical and sweetly realistic delightful journey into 1950s rural and small town America, with in particular the many engagingly informative anecdotes and episodes regarding a 1950s small town school day being both appreciated and massively with pleasure enjoyed (and highly recommended, albeit with the in my opinion necessary caveat that the mental health and religious dogma issues and challenges which do present themselves in Lessons, that are featured and depicted with and in Bonnie Geisert's presented narrative, might very well also lead to questions that definitely would need to be debated, discussed and above all sufficiently and carefully, with understanding answered and that Lessons is definitely and certainly rather a bit more heavy and fraught with potential sadness than either the first novel Prairie Summer or the third novel Prairie Winter).

[Leisly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was awesome!!!! It is about a girl named Rachel and her dad that something that is eating inside of him when his new son,Matthew,is born.Rachel asks herself why is he sad when he is around him?Something from the past has come back to terrorize him....

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the 1950's, there were many reminders of my growing-up days. There was much talk of the saving of infant souls, and opportunities to incorporate the truth from God's word. It's a simple read, but one worth re-reading to pen in these truths for future readers.

[EuNique W.8B · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Lessons is a very good book.This book involves what is right and what is wrong to do but in a story.This book is about a dad that thinks he killed his first born son but he really didn't this book is very interesting but you should read it.