Quick, how many kidlit orphans can you name? Go ahead–I’ll be here after you finish your list. A lot, right? Anne Shirley (and just about all of Montgomery’s heroines), Sara Crewe, Mary Lennox, Rebecca (of Sunnybrook Farm), Pollyanna, Judy from Daddy-Long-Legs and on and on. Then, throw in the kids that have a [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Orphan Stories
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged orphans on January 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
From my archive. . .
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged picture books on January 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Over the last few months, I’ve been going through my old blog and converting it into a readable word document. It’s a huge project, and perhaps silly, but I’m a historian so I want to preserve this bit of my own history. At any rate, tonight I ran across the following post about a top-notch Christmas [...]
Story first, history second
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged historical fiction, WWI on January 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Perhaps I was a wee bit prejudiced as I started reading. Friends that I trusted had very mixed reviews, but I didn’t quite believe them. After all, the book had won the 2011 Newbery award. And it was set in 1936, flashing back to 1917 and 1918. Quite possibly one of my favorite time periods. I should [...]
Timeless
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anne of Green Gables, Betsy-Tacy, Christmas, Little House, Little Women, Roller Skates on December 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »
This year marked the 40th anniversary of my museum’s biggest event of the year, Candlelight. As part of the anniversary, we created a small exhibit and I researched the history of the event. One thing that surprised me was how quickly the key elements of the event came together: buildings decorated by community groups, performances [...]
Evangelism
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Betsy-Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace on November 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
My poor, neglected blog. I knew it had been a long time, but I hadn’t realized it had been over two months. Sheesh! And it’s not like I’ve quite dropped off the face of the earth or stopped reading–just the usual very busy fall. So what brings me back, finally, to this little corner of [...]
Dated Snapshots
Posted in Uncategorized on September 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Several months ago, the book Senior Trip by Marjorie Holmes was handed to me with the words “Read this. It’s fun–you’ll like it!” So I dutifully put in on my “to read” shelf in the bedroom, and there it sat for several months. A few weeks ago, I had run out of library books so [...]
What if?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged African American history, historical fiction, women's history on September 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Many moons ago (11 years ago, to be exact. Good lord, how time flies!), I was an intern at the Women’s Museum. Part of my job was to process the many, many loans–it’s a non-collecting institution so every artifact on display had to come from somewhere else. I have many, many stories about that summer [...]
A season of reading
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged John D. Fitzgerald, L. M. Montgomery on August 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Growing up, the library’s summer reading program was always a highlight of the summer. Finally, treats for always having my nose in a book! Alas, I never won any of the big prizes. Our program was all about the number of books read, not the number of pages. And I kept choosing really big books. [...]
My History with Harry
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Harry Potter, movies on July 19, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Some of you will think this is the post in which this blog, a blog primarily about historical fiction, jumps the shark. After all, I’m pretty sure that even though Harry Potter is insanely popular, no one would classify his story as history. But there are many, many ways in which history and children’s literature intersect. [...]
Kindred Spirits
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anne of Green Gables, food, movies on July 14, 2011 | 4 Comments »
A few weeks ago, a friend said to me: “I just got an ice cream maker. So I’m thinking about having a party where we watch Anne of Green Gables and then break into the ice cream at the same time Anne tastes ice cream for the first time. What do you think?” I’ll give [...]
