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Rachel Elizabeth Dalton, whose initials spell the color of her hair, first marched into my brain some fifteen years ago to remind me of what
it was like to be a kid when the country was on the brink of war. I never dreamed that someday children of this new century would be reading about her because they, too, were living under such circumstances.
THE RACHEL RESISTANCE, which opens the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, was released the May
before 9-11 became a second “date that will live in infamy.” I suddenly found myself doing TV interviews about how my book could be used to help children sort out the pieces of a world in
turmoil. I also found myself back at my computer pounding out "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey so often says. This time I was telling John Alan Feester's side of the story in THE FEESTER
FILIBUSTER set in 1942.
The kids who read The Rachel Resistance and The Feester Filibuster encouraged me to write a third book about the same characters
and time, so I wrote Simon Says, which will be released in September at Encyclomedia in Oklahoma City. It is the story of Simon Green, who marched into
Rachel's classroom in December of 1941 and stole my heart in the process. It's a much heavier book than the other two, and I cried my way through the writing!
If I am allowed to have even a tiny part in soothing the lives of young people by
reassuring them that our country has faced adversity before and won and shall do so again...and again...and again...if necessary, that knowledge alone will be reward enough!
Linda Brand of the Fort Worth ISD wrote the following review, which was labeled
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. That surely would have warmed my Texas Mama's heart! 
Rachel, a red-headed fifth-grader living in Apache, Oklahoma, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, manages to convery with humor,
warmth, and accuracy, the feelings of the American people as the country entered World War II. So many of the feelings are similar to the ones we are experiencing now in our war
against terrorism--pride in local heroes, prejudice against foreign-born citizens, fear of a long drawn-out war. The book gives a wonderful picture of Americana- how it has
changed and how, in many ways, it has remained the same. It would be a wonderful read-aloud book for fourth through sixth graders.
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