Adventures with Miss Flint

Elizabeth St. Jacques is the author of Echoes All Strung Out and
Survivors: The Great Depression, 1929-1939.

Imagine the meanest teacher you ever knew getting some of his or her own
medicine. Don Sawyer brings such fantasies to life in this book of seven
stories about Miss Flint, “the meanest teacher in the whole world.”
It all begins when the author’s 9-year-old daughter complains about a
“totally tough” substitute teacher. To comfort her, the author
relates an exaggerated tale about the teacher he had in Grade 4. At the
end of each story, Sawyer returns us to the present when he and his
daughter share a special moment that leads to yet another tale about
mean old Miss Flint and how Sawyer and his classmates got even with her.

Sawyer’s technique of blending past with present is exceptionally
well done. His writing is clear, colorful, fresh, and sense-stirring,
with the children being dominant decision-makers. But the children’s
stunts for getting even are funny only to a point; some are dangerous
and cruel, even for someone as nasty as Miss Flint. The author often
gets so carried away with an incident that it becomes unbelievable,
which is unfortunate because Sawyer is a good writer and his better
stories are wonderful. Perhaps future collections will gift us with more
of these. Not a first-choice purchase.