OTHER MANUSCRIPTS:

 

A Car Picnic for Sage Ann:

 856 words / 32 pages / 84.8 Flesch Reading Ease / 3.7 Grade Level            

         In order to purchase clean, safe drinking water Sage Ann and her parents must drive one hundred miles round trip from a small town on the edge of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation to a larger ranching community.  A drive beset by economic limitations, and basic human needs rises to joy by appreciation of place and the fun of a simple “car picnic.”

         Based on actual events and people with appropriate changes to ensure anonymity, and universality.

 

Halloween Sojourn on the Prairie:

869 words / 32 pages / 86.1 Flesch Reading Ease / 3.1Grade Level. 

         Four-year-old Sojourn Star Marie is captivated by the fun of Halloween preparations on her family’s isolated dry-land farm in eastern Montana. She is enchanted by the sweeping landscape at dusk and thrilled to visit neighboring farm children. Her delight turns to fear when, in the dark, on the way home, the family must drive by the church and graveyard that sits stark and lonely in the middle of nothing but open empty prairie. In the end, Sojourn finds the night prairie serene as the stars illuminate all souls and the loving gaze of her ancestors.

         Based on actual events and people with appropriate changes to ensure anonymity, and universality.

 

Growing Home: 

913 words / 32 pages / 83.8 Flesch Reading Ease / 3.5 Grade Level

          Haven lives in a living house. It grows new rooms to meet the needs of Haven, her sister Petra, and her brother, Oliver.  At some point every child leaves home, even expanding houses. Haven discovers it’s okay to stay home until she is absolutely ready to go to new worlds.

         Based on a technicolor dream

                                                                                                                                   

The Potter Elf: 

398 words / 32 pages / 89.3 Flesch Reading Ease / 4.2 Grade Level

            This impeccably metered rhyme tells the story of a potter elf who stops mean bullies. For fun, the bullies want to wreak havoc in her pottery. However, her eccentric work practices frighten them away.  While the text resolves the story of the elf, the images forward a continuum of kindness and resolve which begets more kindness and resolve to not accept bullying.

            Based on the circle of my old-lady friends, some of the most delightful and eccentric kids I know.