Addie

“…Ami­able atmos­pher­ic por­trait of life in 1880s Iowa … the sto­ries are gen­tle and heart­warm­ing, and full of authen­tic detail—warmly evoked in the black-and-white illustrations—and smat­ter­ings of dra­ma; Lawlor has a knack for mak­ing his­tor­i­cal fic­tion com­fort­able and rel­e­vant to read­ers.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Addie’s For­ev­er Friend (and the oth­er books in the Addie Series) are based on the expe­ri­ences of my great-grand­par­ents and their chil­dren in the 1880s in Iowa and the Dako­ta Ter­ri­to­ry. To write these books, I did exten­sive detec­tive work—tracking down old let­ters, diaries, and rem­i­nis­cences as well as news­pa­pers and photographs.

On one expe­di­tion to Sab­u­la, Iowa, I brought along an ancient fam­i­ly pho­to, hop­ing to use it to find my great-aunt’s ornate Vic­to­ri­an house. Years ago, this had been the loca­tion of numer­ous fam­i­ly reunions.

My search seemed fruit­less, and just when I was about to give up, a group of local chil­dren came to my res­cue. They looked at the pho­to, and one child said, “See that fan­cy cement cis­tern cov­er? We walk past it every day on the way to school.” Then they showed me the spot.

Sure enough, the cis­tern cov­er was locat­ed on what would have been my great-aunt’s prop­er­ty. Although the house was gone, I felt grate­ful to have found at least one old fam­i­ly relic—the cis­tern cov­er, which over the years had been used for count­less games of tag and leapfrog.

“The author’s metic­u­lous descrip­tions of ordi­nary aspects of farm life, such as milk­ing the cows, clean­ing the privy, and har­vest­ing the hay, pro­vide a last­ing and real­is­tic image of the harsh strug­gles of life on the Great Plains in the late nine­teenth cen­tu­ry. Lawlor cuts her char­ac­ters from stur­dy cloth, sews them into dra­mat­ic back­drops, then lets her read­ers frame the tableau, feel­ing enlight­ened and sat­is­fied.” (Book­list)

“Lawlor once again cap­tures the pio­neer spirit—the hard­ships and sor­row as well as the joys and laughter—and shapes believ­able char­ac­ters and inci­dents.” (Book­list)