The Whistling Season (2006) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Paul Milliron: The narrator of this story, the 13-yr-old oldest brother. He was not challenged in school, much the reader at home.
• Maurice Morgan: Rose's brother, who accompanied her from Minneapolis unannounced but was "not afraid of work". He said he'd been in the leather trade before going to Montana.
• Tobias Milliron: The youngest Milliron brother, seven, more carefree and still able to be hugged; very attached to the family dog. Being young, he was apt to give away secrets.
• Damon: Paul's younger brother, who was a scrapbook-maker, not too much into schooling but interested in sports.
• Rose Llewellyn: Mrs. Llewellyn, the woman whose ad Oliver answered. She became the housekeeper for the Millirons.
• Brose (Ambrose) Turley: Father of Eddie; by trade, a wolf tracker, dealing in wolf pelts. A ferocious, ruthless man. Lived on the Marias River bottomland.
• Eddie Turley: Brose's son, in the eighth grade in school but nearly man-size; mean; feared by the other kids.
• Aunt Eunice Schricker: Not really an aunt to the Milliron boys, but living with her son, their mother's cousin's husband. Older, demanding obedience and attention, often mentioning that she wasn't long for this world.
• Oliver Milliron: A homesteader, father to Paul, Damon and Toby. He was a loving father, a dryland farmer, but hired a housekeeper hoping to get a cook.
• Houdini: The family dog; one trick to his repertoire, a sizable animal. Toby played with him constantly.
• George Schricker: Eunice's son, married to Rae. He was another homesteader who liked to talk plowing and farming with Oliver.
• Rae Schricker: George's wife, a good cook. Invited the Milliron family to dinner on Sundays so they'd have decent meals once in a while.
• Florence: Deceased mother to the Milliron boys.
• Adelaide Trent: Teacher at the Marias Coulee one-room schoolhouse; possibly husband-hunting. Often had a bothered expression; disliked by her students.
• Carnelia Craig: The other seventh grader; she and Paul didn't see eye to eye about anything.
• Barbara Rellis: Wanted to change her name to Rabrab; sixth grader
• Vivian Villard: Sixth grader, bashful, who had trouble pronouncing some letters. Rode five miles to school each day.
• Other sixth graders: Isidor Pronovost; Miles Calhoun (Hector); Marta Johannson (noted for nosebleeds); Grover Stinson;
• Eighth grade - all boys: Carl Johannson; Milo Stoyanov; Eddie Turley, Martin Myrdal and Verl Fletcher. All slow learners, although the last two were a bit brighter than the others.
• The Pronovost kids: Three: Isidor, Gabriel and Inez; lived in a construction camp tent at the Big Ditch.
• The Drobny twins: Two sets: Nick and Sam; Seraphina and Eva.
• Lily Lee Fletcher: Add a description of this character.
• The Stoyanov children: Milo, Marija and Ivo.
• The Kratka boys: Anton and Emil (second grade)
• Peter Myrdahl: A fifth grader
• Josef Kratka and Maggie Emrich, Alice Stinson and Marija Stoyanov,: First graders.
• Sally Emrich
• Harry Taggart: The school inspector, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
• Grover Stinson
• Brother Jubal
• Gabe Pronovost
• Inez Pronovost
• Shakespeare
• Casper Llewellyn
• Emil Kratka
• Caesar
• Miles Calhoun
• Milo Stoyanov
• Eunice Shricker
• Anton Kratka
• Sam Drobny
• Nick Drobny
• Copernicus
• Sigrid Peterson
• Marta Johannson
• Florence Milliron
• Morris Morgan
• Verl Fletcher
• Carl Johannson
• Edmund Halley
• Martin Myrdal
• Ivo
• Mark Twain
• Joe Fletcher
• Seraphina
• Joseph Banks
• Eva
• Alice Stinson
• Ned Wolger
• Peter Myrdal
• Alf Morrissey
• Josef Kratka
• Izzy
• Walt Stinson
• Isidor Pronovost

Quotes edit see section history

• “"People were not a bad lot generally, in what opinion I had been able to form at that age, but there were always some who could drive a nail through a butterfly, too."”

  Narrator

• “Seen her here a couple of Sundays in a row. We figured she was just here for the singin'. Gjuess not.”

  Isidor Pronovost to the Milliron boys after Miss Trent eloped.

• “Beastly.”

  Morrie after seeing Ambrose Turley chasing down a wolf to the slaughter.

• “-- and didn't we just think wehad the world by the tail. High living. All the comforts. Money growing on bushes. But put such trifles up against real purpose in life and all you come out with is ..."”

  Rose to Paul talking about her life before Marias Coulee.

• “You are a challenge, Paul, a palpable challenge. A teacher would not dare to wish for a more ardent student, on those occasions when something manages to catch your interest. therefore it is a matter of bringing your imprimatur more steadily to bear. ----”

  Mr. Morgan to Paul regarding the level of Paul's schoolwork.

• “This is a special year. One that comes rarely. The heavens are going to speak. In a tongue of fire.”

  Mr. Morgan to his class, talking about Halley's Comet.

• “Something has been bothering me. This school and our children are absolutely the best thing Marias Coulee has to offer, but it's plain as day you're used to a higher mental plane. Yet here you are. If you don't care a fig for wages or other attainments, what do you gain from this?”

  Oliver Milliron to Morrie at the schoolroom.

• “Toby, you are an evolutionary pioneer. It may take the rest of humankind ten thousand years tocatch up with you.”

  Morrie to Toby when he viewed the healed foot.

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• THE REMBRANDT LIGHT OF MEMORY, FINICKY AND MAGICAL and faithful at the same time, as the cheaper tint of nostalgia never is.

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• approaching dread and something approximating adoration—the ingredients of every first sighting of a teacher by those whose fate it is to sit and be taught.

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• EVEN WHEN IT STANDS VACANT THE PAST IS NEVER EMPTY.

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• Sputnik, that emulates the moon—and that will have such a tidal pull on our education system.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• the trails in the that radiated in us ninny directions as there were homesteads with children, all converging to that schoolyard spot where I stood unnaturally alone.

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• Now that the Soviet Union has sped past this country into space, science will be king, elected by panic.

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• If I have learned anything in a lifetime spent overseeing schools, it is that childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• That in the nature of the universe, Rose's spirited quoting from the dictionary echoed all through this, by which things come to be as they are.

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• Forever and a day could go by, and that feeling will never leave me. Of knowing, in that instant, the central power of that country school in all our fives.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• Life lays its burden on every soul's shoulder, We each have a cross or a trial to bear. If we miss it in youth it will come when we're older And fit us as close as the garments we wear.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Milliron Homestead: Near Marias River in Marias Coulee, Montana, where Oliver, Paul, Damon and Toby lived.
• Lowry Hill, Minneapolis: Where Rose Llewellen placed her ad.
• Marias Coulee School: A one-room schoolhouse, housing all eight grades; thirty-six children that year.
• Big Ditch: A digging site, an irrigation project. This is where Oliver Milliron hauled wares from the railhead to the irrigation project camp. A long-necked steam shovel dug the main feeder canal, pulling out at least a wagonload of earth at each bite.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Synphonic: Words that are similar in sound, but with "tricks up their sleeves". Ex: cough, bough, cow, bow,

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ivan Doig (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Alex Awards (2007)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

A wonderful story about a time that is gone, told through the eyes of a man looking back on when he was 13 years old.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( D ) › Doig, Ivan
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary