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“I always felt I was born into the wrong century," Patricia Pfitsch says. Inspired by her favorite childhood books, Caddie Woodlawn and Little House in the Big Woods, she persuaded her husband to move to a 100 year-old farmhouse in the forgotten hills of southwestern Wisconsin, an hour away from the nearest clothing store or movie theater and surrounded by wildlife and farm life. "Out here I can sometimes pretend I'm living in the olden days. Our house is heated with wood, and in the winter I cook on a wood-burning stove that's even older than the house." Since she can’t change the year of her birth, she writes historical fiction instead. “My research into past times almost always involves visiting the setting of my novels, touring historical sites, restored houses, and museum, as well as reading as many books as I can find on my subject. I try to get a feel for what it was really like to live in the past so my novels will be accurate and believable.” |
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Riding the Flume Francie has always been in the shadow of her older sister Carrie, a free spirit who could ride any horse, climb any mountain, and knew everything about the plants and animals in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Even after Carrie dies in an accident in the mountains, Francie still feels that shadow—she can never be as spectacular as her sister, especially not in her parents' eyes. When she learns that Carrie was keeping a secret, her search to discover it leads her to understand her sister's true passion and adopt it for herself. But Francie finds that staying true to that passion isn't as easy as she thinks—it may threaten the fortunes of the entire community, and even Francie's life. Awards: 2003 Edgar Award nominee; Junior Library Guild selection; Council of Wisconsin Writers' 2003 Juvenile Fiction Award |
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Keeper of the Light Faith Sutton loves living a the isolated Port Henry Lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior. Since her father, the keeper, drowned five months earlier trying to rescue people from a sinking schooner, she's been keeping the lighthouse beacon burning on her own. She loves the stark beauty of the lake and wants only to stay at the lighthouse and be the keeper. But her mother hates the lighthouse since her husband died. She wants her children to have a more genteel upbringing so she moves them back to Token Creek, and a new keeper takes over at the lighthouse. Faith can't be happy in town. She worries constantly about the lighthouse and whether the new keeper is doing his job. To keep her mother's approval, she promises to learn to become a young lady. But when her mother is caught in a shipwreck off the coast, Faith must decide whether to keep her word or return to the lighthouse. Keeper of the Light takes place in 1872 in Upper Peninsula Michigan. It is the story of a daughter's struggle to be accepted by her mother and by the community, even as she realizes that she must give her mother the same sort of acceptance she is asking for herself. |
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The Deeper Song Some Biblical scholars have put forth the idea that a woman may have written the oldest parts of the first five books of the Bible, the "J" manuscript. The Deeper Song is about that woman and how she came to do the writing. It takes place in the time of Solomon and concerns the way the religion of the Hebrews twined itself about the earlier beliefs of the Goddess-worshipping people of Canaan—how the two rested together and ground against each other like continental plates, causing constant low level disturbances and periodic volcanic eruptions. Awards: Arthur Tofte Juvenile Fiction Book Award |
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Westward to Oregon A fictional accout of a young girl's journey with her family on the Oregon Trail. |
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