Prairie River #1: A Journey of Faith - Softcover

It is the spring of 1865, and the end of the Civil War is near. As the nation is struggling to come to peace with itself, all Vanessa Clemens can think about is her birthday. She has been dreading it for weeks, for the day she turns fourteen she must leave the orphanage that has been her home for a decade. The headmaster has made arrangements for Nessa. Either she can become a servant or marry the pastor, an older dreary man. Those are her only options. Then, on her birthday morning, Nessa hears cries flooding the sleepy Missouri town: President Lincoln has been assassinated. This national tragedy spurs her to flee on the first stagecoach heading West, determined not to be a servant or unloved wife.

Kristiana Gregory grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, two blocks from the ocean. She's always loved to make up stories [ask her family!], telling her younger siblings whoppers that would leave them wide-eyed and shivering. Her first rejection letter at age ten was for a poem she wrote in class when she was supposed to be doing a math assignment. She's had a myriad of odd jobs: telephone operator, lifeguard, camp counselor, reporter, book reviewer & columnist for the LA Times, and finally author. Her award-winning books include STALKED, which earned the 2012 Gold Medal for Young Adult Mystery from Literary Classics and is hailed as "historical fiction with a thrilling twist." KIRKUS calls it "an atmospheric confection that will thrill YA readers ... Gregory achieves a realistic, rich atmosphere with insightful details about the immigration process and New York tenements in the early 1900s." Now available on Kindle and in paperback. JENNY OF THE TETONS [Harcourt] won the Golden Kite Award in 1989 and was the first of two-dozen historical novels for middle grade readers. Several of Kristiana's titles are now available on Kindle including "Curiously Odd Stories: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2" with the celebrated 'Paper Monument', a futuristic book-banning with horrific consequences. MY DARLIN' CLEMENTINE [Holiday House] takes place in an Idaho mining camp of 1866, based on the song of that name, and was Idaho's top pick for the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. BRONTE'S BOOK CLUB [HH] is set in a town by the sea and is inspired by the girls' book club Kristiana led for several years. Her most recent title with Scholastic's Dear America series is CANNONS AT DAWN, a sequel to the best-selling THE WINTER OF RED SNOW, which was made into a movie for the HBO Family Channel. Kristiana and her husband have two adult sons, and live in Idaho with their two golden retrievers. In her spare time she loves to swim, walk, hike, read, and hang out with friends. She's trying to learn to knit, but isn't yet having much success. Check out Kristiana's blogs at http://notesfromthesunroom.blogspot.com/ for behind-the-scenes stories about her books, and with photos from her childhood.