Bringing Warmth to the Alaskan Cold: Tisha

TITLE: Tisha (1976)

AUTHOR: Specht, Robert
GENRE: Historical Fiction
RATING: 8/10
WARNINGS: Mild Language
PLOT:
Anne Hobbs is a nineteen year old school teacher from Colorado.  Seeking for adventure she finds a job in Chicken, a small town deep in the roots of Alaska.  While traveling horseback to her new home in Chicken, Anne is already faced with difficulties. Once Anne has arrived to Chicken, she excels with her teaching and the students love her.  Due to their lack of grammar and speech abilities the children struggle to say teacher, and instead call Anne 'tisha'.  Anne quickly makes friends with the townspeople. But as soon as she befriends the local Indians, Anne's newly made friends despise her.  Anne has to fight against racism and stand up for what she believes is right, even if that means risking her job.
THEME:
The major theme of this book is being true to who you are.  Throughout the book we see that even though Anne is just nineteen years old, she knows who she is and will not lower her standards just to fit in with the crowd.  Anne sees the good in people and does not believe that skin color, or financial wealth, define who a person truly is.
STYLE:
The style of this book is first person.  Anne tells this story through her eyes and we get to see her thoughts throughout all her difficulties.  I thought it was a good choice of style because it showed me how all the hard things affected her thoughts, and how determined she was to overcome everything.
AUDIENCE:
Tisha is a young adult novel, but its true story of courage and strength, appeals to all ages.  The book is not a very hard read, but it keeps the reader interested.
RECOMMENDATION:
I read Tisha because my neighbor told me it was one of her favorites.  After reading, and growing close to the characters, I can definitely say it's on my list of favorites.  Anne Hobbs is an inspiration and she dared "to face down the community's violent disapproval when she dared to treat the local Indians as human beings..." (The New York Times)
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said that Tisha "managed to suspend all [his] disbelief as [he] read it."  This book is informing, adventurous and truly brings warmth to the Alaskan cold.  "The memoir reads like an old-fashioned novel, a heartwarming love story with the added interest of frontier hardships and vividly portrayed characters." (Publishers Weekly)
Signed,
Heart Warmed