8 h 34 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you begin to grow up when school, friendship, and family all ask something of you?
Gretchen Reinwald is in her final year at school, with adult life drawing closer. In Agnes Sapper’s gentle coming-of-age story, classrooms and home form the world around her. Friendship, family duty, and small daily choices give this last school year its meaning.
The story turns toward questions rather than grand adventures: how to treat others, how to meet responsibilities, and how to take the first steps beyond childhood. Sapper brings a warm, moral voice to Gretchen’s world, where growing up means thinking about both your own wishes and the needs of others.
What you’ll discover
- A year of change Follow Gretchen through a final school year shaped by the approach of adult life.
- Friendship at the center Spend time with a story that places friendship at the heart of growing up.
- The pull of duty Consider what family responsibility means for a young woman taking her first steps toward adulthood.
- Small choices that matter Look closely at everyday decisions in a world of classrooms, homes, and personal responsibilities.
- A gentle moral voice Discover Sapper’s warm attention to kindness, honesty, and the character built through daily life.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy warm family stories, school friendships and gentle humour will feel at home here. It also suits anyone curious about a young woman learning kindness, honesty and self-control in everyday life a century ago.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A bright room and a first task
- Honest questions and a laundry basin
- A snake, a slap and a brave apology
- Stand-in housekeeper at her uncle's house
- A helper arrives and Christmas comes home
- A secret that costs a friendship
- First place, a queen's party and a friend's sorrow
- Teamwork and tact before the recital
- Home as a school of character
Who’s who
- Gretchen ReinwaldA warm, impulsive schoolgirl in her last year who wants to be a teacher and to do right, though she often rushes in.
- Hermine BraunGretchen's gentle, loyal best friend and the top student, who worries about rank and has a big family at home.
- Miss von ZimmernThe strict, fair headmistress who corrects careless speech but quietly cares about the character of each pupil.
- Pastor KernThe girls' beloved pastor, who gives a monthly lesson and answers their written questions on faith, secrets and friendship.
- Lene BauerThe Reinwalds' former maid, now a coachman's wife, who struggles to win over her stepsons and still loves Gretchen dearly.
- Ruth HollandA timid nine-year-old whom Gretchen tutors in French, and who slowly learns to trust her teacher.
- Miss TröloppA short, oddly dressed woman back from South America who takes charge wherever help is needed.
- Ottilie von LilienkronA proud, ambitious classmate who envies Gretchen's place but slowly learns to share in other people's happiness.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 34 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Gretchen Reinwald's Last School Year in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Gretchen Reinwald's Last School Year
by Agnes Sapper
Gretchen must learn to teach, keep secrets, run a house and share an honour.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A girl eager to help is about to find out how much she does not know. Gretchen Reinwald is warm, quick and impulsive, and she is also clumsy and impatient.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bright room and a first task
The story opens on the first day of Gretchen's last year. The fifteen oldest girls expect a cold classroom downstairs. Instead they find a bright room at the top of the house, with a green table and a bouquet at every place.
Pastor Kern appears and says he will give the girls a monthly hour to talk about life after school. When Gretchen complains about sewing, he tells her to follow the thread as a straight path, because nothing is too small to do well.
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What is Gretchen Reinwald's Last School Year about?
It follows Gretchen through her final year at a girls' school. She tutors a shy child, helps in her aunt's household during an epidemic, keeps a friend's secret, and learns about friendship, honesty and duty.
Who is Miss Trölopp in the book?
Miss Trölopp is a short, oddly dressed woman whom Gretchen meets on a train. She calls herself a helper, someone who steps in wherever help is unexpectedly needed, and she rescues the van der Bolten household.
Why does Gretchen give up her place at the Queen's party?
After she wins first place, she learns how deeply her friend Hermine's family feels the loss. Gretchen asks her parents and the headmistress to let Hermine go in her place, choosing friendship over the honour.
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