This is a cute little story about the impact a teacher has on his students (and the impact the students have on him) in a mining town in the late 1800s. Jonathan Stuart took this teaching job because he felt it was his Christian duty to give back, but he discovered his love for the community and his students and ended up staying for five years. However, he becomes disheartened and allows an illness he's been fighting his whole life to knock him down when his beloved silver flute goes missing from the school. Maggie MacAuley, one of his students, organizes the other students to try to give Mister Stuart a gift to give him back his hope and faith.

Although this book is very short (I read it in a little over an hour), it really packs a punch is those pages. Yes, it is a bit predictable and a little sappy, but there's nothing wrong with that when it's so well constructed. You get a sense of what it was like to live in a Kentucky mining town in the 1890s, complete with the impact mining accidents, illnesses, and poverty will have on a community. However, it also paints a nice picture of hope and how people have a way of influencing you just by being in your life.

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This is a cute, touching story but it's almost too sweet which makes it unreal.

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A sweet story of children coming together for the cause of their teacher, their community and each other.

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Sappy, maybe. But you know it's a great book when it makes you cry.

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Another wonderful book by one of my very favorite authors!!!!

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A story of love and hope that transcends seasons and settings...a story destined to become a timeless classic.

Welcome to Shingle Creek, Kentucky coal mining town in the late 1800's, where a beloved teacher hovers on the precipice between hope and despair...Where two young friends plan to give a gift that may save a life...Where a one-room schoolhouse provides the setting for a miracle.

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