Linda Borromeo
4 min read
A Narnian Christmas Treasure, a Professor, and Africa
Discovering Narnian Treasure I walked into the fragrance of a hundred Christmas trees. On my way to my cluster mailbox about a half-mile...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
A Lighthouse Fights Bureaucracy at the Chicago World's Fair
Driving down the highway, I'm always intrigued when a moving house rolls by me. Propped on the back of a trailer-truck, with a sign...
Mary Elizabeth Brown
4 min read
From the Valley to the High Places: A Journey and a Book
Please welcome Mary Elizabeth Brown, our guest blogger today. Mary is a musician and writer who is currently working on an historical...
Susan Monk Kannard
6 min read
Planting Seeds of Change: Everyone Has a Story to Tell
I'm pleased to welcome my first guest blogger, Susan Monk Kannard. Susan has extensive experience as a Reading Specialist and has...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
Grace Darling: Meet a Young Lighthouse Heroine
It always surprised Grace Darling to emerge from the shelter of a walled garden to a world exploding with gray light. She looked up at...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
When a Viking Ship Invaded Chicago
A Shimmering World of Illusion One of the delights of writing historical mysteries is the ability to explore different times and imagine...
Linda Borromeo
5 min read
5 Special Places in Literature: A Sense of Place and the Imagination
The heady scents of wisteria mixed with orange blossoms in spring. .. When I opened my window as a child, these are the fragrances that...
Linda Borromeo
5 min read
Freedom at Dawn: The Inspiring Story of Trailblazing Doctor Susan La Flesche Picotte
Freedom at Dawn Susan La Flesche glanced out her window at the Nebraskan prairie as she finished braiding her long black hair....
Linda Borromeo
5 min read
On a Flight of Dreams: The Courageous Story of Aviator Bessie Coleman
Clutching a coin in her hand, young Bessie Coleman hurried out the front door of her home in Waxahachie, Texas. She tightened her...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
A Story in a Portrait: The Mysterious Painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth Mu
Nothing is quite so effortlessly haunting as a painting veiled in mystery. Portraits have been the focus of many evocative films and...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
Catch Your Family's Stories on Thanksgiving: A Mutiny, a Shipwreck, and a Wheel of Cheese
I'm trying to remember the name of a Star Trek episode. The plot features a civilization desperate to hear new stories, and then the...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
Hermenia by the Sea: Meet an Intrepid Lighthouse Keeper's Wife
A lone figure walked along the beach after a fierce storm. With her long skirt twisting in the steady wind, she put up a hand to keep her...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
What Hidden Manuscript Would You Most Like to Discover?
The sound of cheering mixed with the emphatic tapping of typewriter keys. Seated at a small table, surrounded by the cheerful noise of...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
A Parade of Cats: How a Black Kitten Rescued Mark Twain
It began with a small painting. As legend tells it, Samuel Clemens saw a miniature of Olivia Langdon when he met her brother, Charles,...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
The Mirror World of Emily Dickinson and Carlo
Like Alice's adventures through the looking-glass, Emily Dickinson's life is full of contradictions and illusions. I knew very little...
Linda Borromeo
5 min read
Hat Box Dreams: 4 Ways "Anne of Green Gables" Can Help You Achieve Your Creative Goals
On an early spring day, Lucy Maud Montgomery felt a chill when she opened the door to the clothes room. Although the frost had started to...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
Enlightening Lighthouses: 5 Favorite Lighthouse Tales
Every time you visit a lighthouse, there are a wealth of stories to discover. And when you open the pages of a book with a lighthouse...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
Books on the Move: The Traveling Lighthouse Library
Dawn streaked the sky with gold and lavender as Assistant Lightkeeper Bel Sinclair opened the tower door. After finishing her watch at...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
The Island of Freedom: 'Misty of Chincoteague' and the Annual Pony Swim
"...for Assateague belonged to the wild things, and the wild ponies whose ancestors had lived on it since the days of the Spanish...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
Sojourn at the Lighthouse: Experiencing Life By the Sea
Would you pay money to spend a vacation washing windows, mowing the lawn, weeding, polishing brass and painting objects high above the...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
Great Books and Movies to Enjoy for the 4th of July Holiday
In between picnics, fireworks, and being out in the midsummer sunshine, the 4th of July weekend is a great time to relax and enjoy a...
Linda Borromeo
4 min read
A Most Mysterious Room: Revisiting a Childhood Classic
The Velvet Room is a surprising and wonderful book I never wanted to read again. When I discovered the book at the age of ten, its...
Linda Borromeo
5 min read
5 Special Places in Children's Literature: Reading Retreats
Did you have a special place as a child to take a book and read? I loved reading outside and could usually be found under a tree with our...
Linda Borromeo
3 min read
Keep Discovering: The Wonder of Printed Words
Once upon a time, a shy little girl sat reading at her desk in a combined fifth and sixth grade classroom. Bright sunshine filtered...