Then Mr. Harris grew serious. "The way I see it, any child under the age of twenty-one resident in the town of LaForge has the right to attend school here. I'll tell Miss Walters to expect a new student on Monday."

This is important to the storyline because it shows Hanna being able to start going to school. She was never able to go to school before and even though most people were against it she was able to go to school. Hanna was able to make some friends at school despite her being half chinese.

Hanna drew back from the window, dizzy with disbelief. Bess had done it. Somehow, she had gotten what looked like half the town to come to the opening.

This is important to the storyline because Hanna had an encounter with Mr. Swenson and even Hanna wasn't even the tiniest bit at fault she was blamed, people didn't was to patronize the dressmaking shop since she worked at it. Hanna might've had to leave LaForge if Bess hadn't gone door to door with Miss Walters to tell everyone what really happened.

I read your book, Prairie Lotus. I like how the main character is half-Chinese. I also like how the book talked about her struggles which many people in real life probably struggled with too. What inspired you to write this book? What were you thinking when you wrote this book? Did you base it on something about yourself? I know you also wrote other books, did you have ideas in your head already when you wrote them, or did you just sit down and write?