“The Whistling Season” is a book that pulls readers into the life of Paul Milliron as he looks back on his days in a one-room schoolhouse on the Montana prairie.

Paul is now the superintendent of Montana schools and has been for many years. He is tasked by the state appropriations committee with closing the very type of one-room schoolhouse he attended. As the product of just such a school, this starts Paul on a reminiscence of the remarkable year that forms the story for the “Whistling Season.”

Set in the early 1900s and filled with characters that are eminently likeable, Doig lets us feel the prairie wind on our faces, suffer through bad cooking, and enjoy the tumult of the Milliron family.

The Millirons have recently lost their wife and mother, and are struggling to cope. With no female touch to guide them, the father and three sons are having problems with housekeeping in general and cooking in particular. They think they have found the solution when they see an ad in the paper for a housekeeper for hire.

Despite the fact that the ad starts with “can’t cook but doesn’t bite,” Oliver Milliron, the father, is sure she will be a fine cook. After all, the ad states that she is a widow, and what wife doesn’t know how to cook? If they can just get her out to Montana, everything will work out just fine — really, it will!

The erstwhile housekeeper, Rose, arrives with her brother, Morrie, in tow. No one had expected him and confusion ensues as his presence is figured out. Rose and Morrie are eccentric, irrepressible characters that soon take the Milliron family’s collective heart.

Rose turns out to be an excellent housekeeper. As for her cooking abilities, well, you’ll just have to read the story to find out what happens there. When the schoolteacher runs off to get married, leaving the community in a lurch, the reluctant Morrie takes charge. Possessed of an extraordinary intelligence and a fine education, he does an amazing job of connecting with the students. From the youngest of the lot to the wizened eighth-graders, he soon has them eating out of his hand.

Morrie’s conversion to school teacher benefits our narrator Paul in particular. Paul’s thirst for knowledge draws him to Morrie and these two form a close bond during early morning tutoring sessions held before school hours. These sessions challenge Paul’s unusual intellect and will have a profound effect on his life.

This sets the stage for the wonderful story this book tells. It has heart and humor. The characters are so likeable and the story so entertaining that I wanted it to just keep rolling along without ending.

This book will appeal to anyone looking for something to read that falls outside the realm of the traditional thriller, crime or mystery novel.