SEAL ISLAND SCHOOL

Everything turns out right in this salubrious, good-natured account of everyday life in a one-room schoolhouse on an island in Maine where “the only cars were three old pickups.” Setting determines the life of nine-year-old Pru and the lives of the friends and family who surround her. She adores her teacher, Miss Sparling, and is bent on seeing that the woman does not—as have teachers in the past—leave the island after one year. In her efforts to put a good face on island living, Pru and a buddy raise money by recycling, planning to buy a Newfoundland for Miss Sparling. Every quiet episode is, by itself, smaller than a breadbox—finding a message in a bottle, making a new friend, participating in pet day at school—but they fit together neatly for a gratifying wishes-come-true ending. The amicable characters and genial tone harken back to simpler times, when afterschool activities meant discovering shells at the beach, and every sunset was an event. (Fiction. 7-9)