Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

This is a lousy cover, but is the cover my audiobook had. I'll share a couple of better ones at the end of the post. Title: Lyddie Author: Katherine Paterson, read by Alyssa Bresnahan Publication Info: Recorded Books, Inc., 1993. Originally by Dutton Juvenile, 1991 Source: Library digital resources Blurb (via Overdrive): Lyddie Worthen is only 13 when her family is split up and she is forced to hire herself out at Cutler's tavern. Far from home, she despairs of ever seeing her loved ones again. Desperate, Lyddie makes her way to Concord, Massachusetts where she becomes a factory girl, working as a weaver in a textile mill.  Six days a week Lyddie struggles at the back-breaking looms. In spite of the deafening noise of the machines, the sweltering heat, and the choking air thick with lint and dust, Lyddie holds onto her dream: to save enough money to pay off the family debts and bring everyone back home-together. But as Lyddie earns a reputation for being a hard and thr...

The latest in Rhys Bowen's fun "Royal Spyness" mystery series.   Title: Author:  Publication Info: Source: Publisher's Blurb: Georgie is excited for her first Christmas as a married woman in her lovely new home. She suggests to her dashing husband, Darcy, that they have a little house party, but when Darcy receives a letter from his aunt Ermintrude, there is an abrupt change in plans. She has moved to a house on the edge of the Sandringham estate, near the royal family, and wants to invite Darcy and his new bride for Christmas. Aunt Ermintrude hints that the queen would like Georgie nearby. Georgie had not known that Aunt Ermintrude was a former lady-in-waiting and close confidante of her royal highness. The letter is therefore almost a royal request, so Georgie, Darcy, and their Christmas guests: Mummy, Grandad, Fig, and Binky all head to Sandringham. Georgie soon learns that the notorious Mrs. Simpson, mistress to the Prince of Wales, will also be in att...

Title: Northwind Author: Gary Paulsen Publication Info: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022. 256 pages Source: Library digital resources Publisher’s Blurb: When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. But the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to "the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea." With hints of Nordic mythology and an irresistible narrative pull, Northwind is Gary Paulsen at his captivating, adventuresome best.   My Review: When I saw this on the library web site last fall, I had to put myself on the holds list, and was lucky to get a copy as soon as it came out. It is Gary Paulsen's last book, but as he says in the afterword, he has been writing it all his life. I think it feels l...

Title: A Place to Hang the Moon Author: Kate Albus. Read by Polly Lee Publication Info: Tantor Media, 2021. Original Margaret Ferguson, 2021, 309 pages Source: Library Publisher’s Blurb: It is 1940 and Anna, 9, Edmund, 11, and William, 12, have just lost their grandmother. Unfortunately, she left no provision for their guardianship in her will. Her solicitor comes up with a preposterous plan: he will arrange for the children to join a group of schoolchildren who are being evacuated to a village in the country, where they will live with families for the duration of the war. He also hopes that whoever takes the children on might end up willing to adopt them and become their new family--providing, of course, that the children can agree on the choice. Moving from one family to another, the children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets, and the hollowness of empty tummies. They seek comfort in the village lending library, whose kind...

  Title: Maud and Addie Author: Maureen Buchanan Jones Publication Info: May 2021 Fitzroy Books. Paperback is 240 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher’s Blurb: In 1910, the two sisters, eleven- and twelve-year-old Maud and Addie, are eagerly anticipating their Summer Social in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. However, the event does not quite go according to plan, and the two girls are swept out to sea as they are rowing home at the day’s end. They find themselves adrift in the unforgiving North Atlantic with only the contents of a picnic hamper to sustain them and a carriage blanket to keep them warm. Finding their way through stormy seas, the girls finally make landfall on a deserted island. With string and a jackknife recovered from Maud’s pockets and a parasol and novel contributed by Addie, the girls create a world for themselves among the island dunes, keeping company with sea birds and other sea creatures. Their ensuing adventures test their wits and, in th...

Title: Two Roads Author: Joseph Bruchac Publication Info: 2018 Dial Books. 320 pages  Source: Library digital resources   Publisher’s Blurb: It's 1932, and twelve-year-old Cal Black and his Pop have been riding the rails for years after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Cal likes being a knight of the road with Pop, even if they're broke. But then Pop has to go to Washington, DC--some of his fellow veterans are marching for their government checks, and Pop wants to make sure he gets his due--and Cal can't go with him. So Pop tells Cal something he never knew before: Pop is actually a Creek Indian, which means Cal is too. And Pop has decided to send Cal to a government boarding school for Native Americans in Oklahoma called the Challagi School. At school, the other Creek boys quickly take Cal under their wings. Even in the harsh, miserable conditions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, he begins to learn about his people's history and he...

Title: Author: Publication Info: Source:   Publisher's Blurb (per Amazon): Georgie and Darcy are finally on their honeymoon in Kenya's Happy Valley, but murder crashes the party in this all-new installment in the New York Times bestselling series. I was so excited when Darcy announced out of the blue that we were flying to Kenya for our extended honeymoon. Now that we are here, I suspect he has actually been sent to fulfill another secret mission. I am trying very hard not to pick a fight about it, because after all, we are in paradise! Darcy finally confides that there have been robberies in London and Paris. It seems the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. Since we are staying in the Happy Valley—the center of upper-class English life—we are well positioned to hunt for clues and ferret out possible suspects.   Now that I am a sophisticated married woman, I am doing my best to sound like one. But crikey! These aristocrats are a thor...

The long-anticipated IWSG Anthology is here! Voyagers: The Third Ghost releases today, including my story "A World of Trouble." Voyagers: The Third Ghost An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology Journey into the past… Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives?   Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII?  And sneaking off to see their first aeroplane – what could go wrong? Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of   Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke,   Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise MacBeath Barbour,   Beth Anderson Schuck, and   L.T. Ward. Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales   will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get r...

Title: The Hired Girl Author: Laura Amy Schlitz; read by Rachel Botchan Publication Info: 2015 by Recorded Books; hardback 2015 by Candlewick Press Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Ever since the untimely death of her mother, 14-year-old Joan Skraggs has been desperately unhappy. Under the thumb of her cruel father and three sullen brothers, Joan lives like a servant on their farm just outside of Lancaster, forever cooking, cleaning, and attending to the many demands of the home. But she has little freedom and less support from her family for her love of reading and blossoming interest in education. But when her father tells Joan she can't go to school anymore, it sets off a journey that will see her become first a runaway, then a hired girl on $6 a week, and finally her very own young woman. Set in America during the optimistic years before the First World War, and told through a series of journal entries, The Hired Girl is the story of a young g...

Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Author: Betty Smith. Narrated by Kate Burton Publication info: 2005 Harper Audio. Original publication 1943 by Harper & Brothers, 443 pages. Source: Library digital resources Goodreads Blurb: The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich mom...

Title: Twerp Author: Mark Goldblatt, read by Everette Plen Publication Info: 2013, Listening Library. Hardcover 2013, Random House Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: It's not like I meant for him to get hurt. . . . Julian Twerski isn't a bully. He's just made a big mistake. So when he returns to school after a weeklong suspension, his English teacher offers him a deal: if he keeps a journal and writes about the terrible incident that got him and his friends suspended, he can get out of writing a report on Shakespeare. Julian jumps at the chance. And so begins his account of life in sixth grade--blowing up homemade fireworks, writing a love letter for his best friend (with disastrous results), and worrying whether he's still the fastest kid in school. Lurking in the background, though, is the one story he can't bring himself to tell, the one story his teacher most wants to hear. Inspired by Mark Goldblatt's own childhood growing u...

Title: The Mad Wolf's Daughter Author: Diane Magras; read by Joshua Manning Publication Info: Listening Library, 2018. Original by Kathy Dawson books. 288 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: One dark night, Drest's sheltered life on a remote Scottish headland is shattered when invading knights capture her family, but leave Drest behind. Her father, the Mad Wolf of the North, and her beloved brothers are a fearsome war-band, but now Drest is the only one who can save them. So she starts off on a wild rescue attempt, taking a wounded invader along as a hostage. Hunted by a bandit with a dark link to her family's past, aided by a witch whom she rescues from the stake, Drest travels through unwelcoming villages, desolate forests, and haunted towns. Every time she faces a challenge, her five brothers speak to her in her mind about courage and her role in the war-band. But on her journey, Drest learns that the war-band is legendary for terro...

    Title: Tell Me No Lies Author: Shelley Noble Publication Info: November 5, 2019, Forge Books. 368 pages. Source: ARC provided through Great Escapes blog tours Publisher's Blurb: Rise and shine, Countess, you're about to have a visitor. Lady Dunbridge was not about to let a little thing like the death of her husband ruin her social life. She's come to New York City, ready to take the dazzling world of Gilded Age Manhattan by storm. The social events of the summer have been amusing but Lady Phil is searching for more excitement---and she finds it, when an early morning visitor arrives, begging for her help. After all, Lady Phil has been known to be useful in a crisis. Especially when the crisis involves the untimely death of a handsome young business tycoon. His death could send another financial panic through Wall Street and beyond. With the elegant Plaza Hotel, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the opulent mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast as the backdrop,...

Title:  Home for Erring and Outcast Girls Author: Julie Kibler Publication Info: Crown Publishing, 2019. 400 pages Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: An emotionally raw and resonant story of love, loss, and the enduring power of friendship, following the lives of two young women connected by a home for “fallen girls,” and inspired by historical events. In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between Dallas and Fort Worth’s red-light districts, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet the...

Ring-A-Ding Dead! (The Myriad Mysteries) by Claire Logan   About Ring-A-Ding Dead! Ring-A-Ding Dead! (The Myriad Mysteries)   Cozy Mystery , 1st in Series   Independently Published (May 29, 2019)   Print Length: 244 pages   Digital ASIN: B07SG1XXM6   Just married! It's time for a ... murder? When checking into the posh Myriad Hotel on their honeymoon, Hector and Pamela Jackson discover a dead body! All the couple wants to do, though, is keep out of the commotion and enjoy some well-earned rest. But another person dies, and they happen to appear at the crime scene. When a third person falls right in front of them, the police begin to wonder why. Who's responsible for the murders? Why are they happening? Are the couple under suspicion? Where does the little stray dog hanging around the hotel entrance come from? And when are Hector and Pamela finally going to have a proper honeymoon? My Review:  Ring-A-Ding Dead! is two mysteries for the price of one. W...