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.
It recently occurred to me that when I wrote this scene, I left out an "artifact" that would have been present at most dances in the 19th C. And I should NOT have forgotten it, as this was an artifact that was still around when I started going to dances a century and a half later. What am I talking about? DANCE CARDS. These were printed and handed out to young ladies at the beginning of the evening. All the dances would be listed, with a space opposite where a young man could write in his name, if so permitted and accepted by the young lady. (I can't help wondering how the young men kept track of the dances they had promised.) Anyway, when I went to high school many, many years ago, dance cards were still given to the girls attending a formal dance. By that time, however, she only danced with her date, so one ever wrote in the dance cards! I was still happy to hook one around my wrist and enjoy the link to the past! (I am delighted that I will be able to insert the missing dance card into the dramatization of this scene I am writing for performance during the upcoming Lafayette Farewell Tour Bicentennial!)
Book Excerpt
A Buss from Lafayette
I expected I would soon be one of the “wallflowers” sitting by those very walls, despite Dickon’s stammered request for a dance. He had been teasing me for years, and doubtless his invitation was another of his jests. If I acted as if I thought he had meant his request to dance with me, would he laugh? I resolved to be very cool towards him so he would not do so.
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