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As a child, I loved Saturday mornings because after a one-hour piano lesson, I walked across the street from my piano teacher’s home to a public library. Week after week, year after year, I returned the books checked out the previous week, and luxuriated in an hour to find the books I would read the next week. That repeated library adventure formed me. I continue to love learning about and engaging with many people, cultures, and worlds I first met in the pages of a book. Although I actively wrote stories and poems throughout my school career, it wasn’t until I had finished seminary and was working as a United Methodist minister that I began to publish my writings. Over the years I wrote hundreds of magazine articles, many books of curriculum for middle and high school students, thirteen spiritual/devotional books for adults, and a few poems. I retired from the ministry in 1997 to write fulltime My first children’s book, Shy Mama’s Halloween (Tilbury House, 2000) was named a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People for 2001 by the Children’s Book Council and National Council for Social Studies, was on the McNaughton List, and won the Teachers’ Choice Award from Learning magazine. My upcoming picture book, Priscilla and the Hollyhocks (Charlesbridge Books, 2008) is the true story of a slave girl who went on the Trail of Tears with her Cherokee master in 1838. Like the Priscilla story, many of my current book projects are based on historical events. I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, have traveled all over the world and now live in Massachusetts. I love to visit schools to share with and learn from students about writing and reading. |
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Priscilla and the Hollyhocks Priscilla is only four years old when her mother is sold to another master. All Priscilla has to remember her mother by are the hollyhocks she planted by the cow pond. At age ten, Priscilla is sold to a Cherokee family and continues her life as a slave. She keeps hope for a better life alive by planting hollyhocks wherever she goes. At last, her forced march along the Trail of Tears brings a chance encounter that leads to her freedom. Teaching Guide available here. |
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Shy Mama's Halloween A Russian immigrant family's first experience of Halloween helps them feel a sense of belonging in the United States. Anya, Irina, Dasha, and Dimitrii have never known the magic of Halloween. For their mother, who is uncomfortable with America, this holiday becomes a courageous step into a new world. The oldest daughter, Anya says, "Here, in the darkness, surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of other children, we, too, were American. No one cared that our 'Thank you' was said with an accent. No one cared that our Mama, in her babushka, could speak only a few words of English. Halloween was our holiday, as much as anyone else's." Teaching Guide available for this book on Anne's site (click on "For Teachers") and Tilbury's site. Awards |
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