The Long Summer - a Karrie McCleary Story

The foothills of the Sierra Nevada were home for many years and they continue to be a reservoir of inspiration. I moved there a month after my first child, Kathy, was born. All four of my children grew up in this paradise - an orange farm on sloping hills, near a lake, with a large pasture in back at the base of an unpopulated mountain. Many of the incidents in this story are based on true happenings back then 'on the farm'.

Karrie's character is in part gathered from children I have known, in part she grew into her own personality as the story developed. She is a delightful young girl, eager to please yet finding her own strengths and determinations as her world is changing. I liked her so much I have written a sequel to this story, which will be published early Spring 2001.

I have always wanted to write a series of children's stories as I enjoyed so much reading the Little House on the Prairie series as well as all the Beany Malone books. Reading should be a vital part of the young mind's activities especially in an age when so much entertainment is fed to us leaving little to the imagination. I know that letting my mind fill in the details of what people look like and what the scene is far more stimulating than having it all spelled out in details on a screen or monitor.

I also wanted Karrie to be somewhat a role model of what childhood was a half-century ago, when life was a tad more simple and pleasures a tad more delightful.