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RUTHIE'S GIFT was published in 1998. It won a Publisher's Weekly 'Flying Start' Award, and was on six state book award lists. Since then she has published fourteen books, in all age groups from preschool to young adult.

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I discovered this author when a student made a "wish" for the book!

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I discovered this author when a student made a "wish" for the book!

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"I have no idea what inspires my stories. They aren't inspired, they're written: it's work.

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worked as a freelance writer for equestrian magazines in college, and later as a part-time editor

studied chemistry in college because that was what I most loved to learn, but it's not what I most love to do; loved to write!

took a Children's Literature class in college, and the teacher was Patricia MacLachlan (author)

joined a writer's group and learned the art & business of writing for children (group was run by author, Jane Yolen)

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born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1967

attended Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, and graduated with a degree in chemistry

married high school sweetheart, Bart Bradley, who became an Opthamologist

son, Matthew, born in 1994

daughter, Katie, born in 1998

lives on a 52-acre farm, with ponies, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, and lots of trees in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains

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"My foot is a long way from my brain." -Ada

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Will the bond between Ada, Jamie, and Susan be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

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1939 at beginning of World War II

London, England and in the country by the English Channel

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Character – destruction, building up

Companionship as salvation

Displacement

Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice

Will to survive

War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy

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Ada is 9 years old

club foot

abusive mother

no schooling/can't read

takes care of younger brother, Jamie

loves riding Butter, her pony

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Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute --- she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan --- and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie.

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Click here for author video.

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Click here for booktrailer.