An Old Fashioned Girl

Polly leaves her quiet country home to explore the foreign world of city life. While her wealthy cousins the Shaws welcome her into their existence, Polly wrestles to find the balance between the simplicity of her heritage and the new opportunities her cousins offer.

Rose in Bloom

Rose and Uncle Alex are back from their tour abroad. But the littler girl that her seven "cousins"  remember is gone forever. A winsome young woman has taken her place. Rose does not know what to do with the new attention she is receiving from her dear friends turned suitors.

Jo's Boys

The Little Men and their respective sisters are full grown. The saga continues as the boys set-out around the world, embracing their young adult status. The book follows the individual adventures of the young men such as getting lost at sea, rising to fame and falling into poverty abroad, experiencing first love, and finally returning to share their stories at Plumfield. 

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment

During my undergrad years in Chicago, I had the privilege of meeting a Japanese American interment camp survivor. She, along with thousands of other Americans, were forced to live in these camps during WWII. According to my older friend, all of the Japanese Americans in her generation spent time in the camps. Their stories must be told in order for us to fully understand the effects of WWII on our country. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston offers an insiders look at the interment camp through her poignant memoir.   

These Happy Golden Years

"Only yesterday she was a schoolgirl; now she was a school teacher. This had happened so suddenly... But tomorrow she would be teaching school.


She did not really know how to do it. She never had taught school, and she was not sixteen years old yet. Even for fifteen, she was small; and now she felt very small." -Chapter One

The cover of this book depicts a confident looking young woman joining hands with smitten young man. There is so much more to the story, although Laura and Almonzo's budding romance is a definite theme. Laura transitions from childhood to adulthood as she assumes classroom responsibilities far from home.  The distance tears at her heart, but she does it because of her love for the ones she holds close. Life is ironic like that. These Happy Golden Years poignantly illustrates time's bittersweet beauty, celebrating the wonder and of novelty of young adulthood in the midst of childhood lost.  

Little Town on the Prairie

Laura is a teacher! As a bright student and a dutiful sister, Laura acquires her teacher certification so that she can support older sister Mary's education at the college for the blind. Talk about a dedicated fifteen year old. Just thinking of her entering her classroom for the first time thrills me to the core! On a side note, tomorrow I begin my final student teaching assignment at a Decatur Elementary school. Laura Ingalls Wilder's relentless curiosity and thirst for learning have always inspired me.  In some small way, she deserves credit for my current career track. You're my hero, Laura! Apparently Almonzo Wilder thought she was too cool for school himself. He requests permission to walk her home from church *OOOHOOOH*, heralding a new season of friendship...and more to come! Ahh, there's nothing better than a coming of age- teacher tale with a side of heart-flutters and sweet nothings.