Carrie and the Homestead (click on the title to order from Amazon.com)
by Nelda Johnson Liebig
Blue Horse Books (October 2009)
106 pages, paperback, $10.95
a historical novel, set in Wisconsin, for young readers (ages 8 to 12)

In pioneer Wisconsin in 1877, Carrie Heidenworth, survivor of the Great Peshtigo Fire, works to rebuild the Heidenworth homestead. Along with her longtime friends, Carrie befriends a neighboring girl named Jaz, who becomes Carrie’s energetic helper.

Harvest time brings friends and neighbors together to pick the apple crop, and a school is built nearby.

Of course, adventures occur, and in the midst of it all, an elusive stranger appears.
With typical kindness, Carrie seeks to discover the man’s surprising story.

This is the fourth book in the dramatic, uplifting, and award-winning Carrie Heidenworth series, by Wisconsin author Nelda Johnson Liebig, a saga of survival, faith, and friendships in northeastern Wisconsin (near Green Bay).

The wonderful books, in the style of the beloved Little House on the Prairie books, occur in the aftermath of the little-known Peshtigo Fire, a fast-moving blaze that occurred the same night as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

I look for little-known facts in history and travel books. From these I glean a storyline. I was reading Fire at Peshtigo by Robert Wells, a historian. He wrote how people survived the worst firestorm in the history of our nation. He told how a girl, struggling to stay afloat in the river as the fire roared overhead, grabbed hold of a cow’s horn.

I researched this, then wrote a fictionalized version in my first book, Carrie and the Crazy Quilt. To my surprise, the book won an award given by the Wisconsin State Historical Society, for “distinguished service to history.”

The book ends with Carrie and her little brother, Fritz, surviving, but discovering that their parents were missing and presumed lost in the fire.

As part of my research, I also learned that surviving children were taken to nearby towns and adopted. That is the idea that led to the second book, Carrie and the Apple Pie. Carrie does not want to be adopted. Her goal is to return to her homestead, but her trials have just begun, and for the time being, it is impossible for her to return to the burnt-out farm. She has to learn to make new friends and adapt to a new life.

At the end of this story, Carrie knows she will return one day to the homestead. This fall, readers can finally see this dream come true, in Carrie and the Homestead.

Although my books are for ages 9–12, readers of all ages enjoy Carrie’s saga, from surviving a holocaust to rebuilding her life on the homestead she dearly loves.

You might be interested to know that there was a real person named Carrie Heidenworth, and I had the privilege of visiting her grave in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and meeting two of her great nieces.

I have been writing since childhood and never know from where my next story idea will appear! At the present, I am researching my ancestor, Rosebud, daughter of Bear Hunter, born in the 1740s in Cherokee, Tennessee. Perhaps she – my grandmother, eight generations ago – will be the heroine in my next historical fiction novel!

For now, I pursue my favorite activities including biking the state trail that passes through my town of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, and backpacking in my favorite national park, the setting for my other novel, Jordyn Backpacks Isle Royale National Park. I will continue to travel to new places with my husband who is a tour director.

Wherever I go, my notebook of writing ideas goes with me!

The Carrie series includes three historical novels for young readers, by Nelda Liebig, with a fourth book coming (October 2009). The first three books are:

Carrie and the Crazy Quilt

Carrie and the Apple Pie

Carrie and the Boarding House

This blog will feature posts by the author, Nelda, and the books’ editor, Philip Martin. Our goal is to help young readers discover the books and learn more: how the books were researched and written, the background of their characters in actual history and creative imagination, and more about Midwestern pioneer life and especially the Great Peshtigo Fire.

Be sure to let us know if you have any questions you’d like to see answered here.

More to come soon!