CAN ONE LITTLE KISS FROM A WORLD FAMOUS HERO OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION CHANGE EVERYTHING? Now available in print, digital, and audio editions.
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1st Place Winner (Young Adults) Red City Review Book Awards; 1st Place Winner (Historical Fiction) Purple Dragonfly Book Awards; Gold Medalist (Middle School/Historical Fiction) Literary Classics Award; Bronze Medalist (Juvenile/Young Adult Fiction) eLit Awards; Finalist, (Historical Fiction) Red City Book Awards; Quarter Finalist (Middle Grade) Booklife Prize. Also named on the Grateful American Kids website as one of the best history book for kids to read.
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Clever young Clara Hargraves has a couple of big problems: a new stepmother, formerly her old maid schoolteacher aunt, who keeps trying to make Clara behave like a lady; and red hair, which means she is constantly teased, especially by an older boy, Dickon, and her beautiful cousin, Hetty. During the last week of June, 1825, Clara's small New Hampshire town is buzzing about the upcoming visit to the state by the Revolutionary War hero, General Lafayette. Could an unexpected playful kiss from a charming, world-famous Frenchman change Clara's life forever?
Dorothea Jensen is proud to be one of a very few people who has boarded a pirate ship and attacked a Viking vessel manned by real Vikings wearing horns and furs. She was born in Boston, but grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois, site of the Viking adventure. She then earned a BA in English from Carleton College and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. She has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South America, taught middle and high school English, tutored refugees in ESL, written grant proposals for various arts organizations, written a play performed in Noh style, and raised three children. Her first historical novel for young readers, THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM, has been used in classrooms for many years as an enrichment resource for kids studying the American Revolution. Her next novel, A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE, is set in 1825 in the small town in New Hampshire where she has lived since 1991. Dorothea also writes modern Christmas stories in verse. Modeled on the 19th century classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", these award-winning Santa's Izzy Elves story poems feature decidedly 21st century elves savvy in modern technology.
Recently I met a representative of the Children of the Revolution, an organization that is raising money to put up a new, corrected, marker about Lafayette's stop in my town, Hopkinton, NH. (This is where A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE is set, and his reception here is part of the story.) I only met her because she stopped by my house to pick up Julien Icher, the young Frenchman who is researching Lafayette's Farewell Tour. Anyway, I begn to explain to her why I was eager to help in any way I could with the new sign, and started telling her about BUSS. To my surprise, she said, "My daughter just finished reading that book and she loved it!" I turned around, and greeted her young daughter. I don't know which of us was more surprised, but I was delighted to meet this young fan!
Book Excerpt
A Buss from Lafayette
I liked everything about school, right down to the sound of the pencils scritching on our slate tablets. Most of all, however, I loved hearing the teacher read stories and fairy tales to us aloud. Even the more youthful fare read aloud in the classroom seemed to transport me right out of Hopkinton and into more exciting times and places.
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