About the Book
Narrator Paul Milliron looks back from the 1950s to his childhood education in a one-room schoolhouse on the Montana prairie. After losing his mother, his father hires a housekeeper from Minneapolis who claims she “can’t cook but doesn’t bite” to care for him and his three boys. They get more than they bargained for when Rose Llewellyn shows up with her brother Morris Morgan in tow. They are both hiding a past and when Morris takes over the school room, Paul receives the best education of his life.
Meet the Author
Ivan was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, in 1939 to Charles Campbell and Berneta Doig. His father was a ranch hand. Ivan studied and graduated from Northwestern University with an M.S. in journalism and from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. in history. He married Carol Dean Muller in 1965. His hobbies include reading and hiking. He was nominated for a National Book Award for his book This House of Sky: Landscapes of the American Mind and won the Evans Biography Award in 1993 for Heart Earth. He lives in Seattle.
Visit Ivan Doig’s website
Articles and Reviews
All articles cited are available in full-text magazines at http://www.siouxlandlib.org/. Select Databases, click login, type in your bar code and PIN, and click login. Choose MasterFILE Premier, ProQuest, Contemporary Authors, or InfoTrac Professional Edition.
"The Whistling Season." New Yorker. August 28, 2006. V82m Is26, p77.
Minzesheimer, Bob. "'Whistling Season': Quietly beautiful.” USA Today. June 29, 2006.
Bass, Rick. The Whistling Season” Publishers Weekly. March 20, 2006. V253, Is12, p33.
The Whistling Season” Kirkus Reviews. March 1, 2006. V74, Is5, p197-198.
Sullivan, Patrick. The Whistling Season” Library Journal. February 1, 2006. V131, Is2, p70.
Ott, Bill “The Whistling Season” Booklist. December 15, 2005. V102, Is8 p4.
Ivan Doig. Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2004.
Discussion Questions
- When siblings Rose Llewellyn and Morris Morgan step off the train, what is unusual about their relationship?
- Discuss the scene by the cliff where Morrie and the boys say the wolf is being chased by Brose Turley.
- Paul and his brothers had many adventures living out on the prairie. Why was their father so mad at the way they approached the race? And at how they treated Eddie Turley and his father?
- After Eddie was jumped by the other boys and got his glasses broken, how did his role change in the school room? How did Paul feel about him?
- The Montanalandscape is also a character in the book. How does it shape Paul’s life in 1909 and again in 1957?
- What surprises did the writer take that you were not expecting?
- Morrie Morgan became such a part of Paul’s education. Was it to his detriment? How did Morris surprise Paul?
- In the end does Paul compromise his integrity by not letting others know about Rose and Morrie’s past?
- What language or turn of phrase caught you off guard or stays with you?
- What significance in the big picture was Rose’s independence? How did she assert it?
(Questions by Jane Taylor)
