VQ HJEHWAP KQR….. (Please refer to your newspaper for complete puzzle.)
TODAY’S ANSWER:
ANSWER: IN OCTOBER ANY WONDERFUL UNEXPECTED THING MIGHT BE POSSIBLE. —ELIZABETH GEORGE SPEARE
ELIZABETH GEORGE SPEARE
NOVEMBER 21, 1908 – NOVEMBER 15, 1994 • AGED 85 • AMERICAN CHILDREN’S AUTHOR & HISTORICAL NOVELIST
🏡 A STORYTELLER FROM NEW ENGLAND
Elizabeth George Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, and developed a love of reading and storytelling as a child. She graduated from Smith College in 1930 and later earned a master’s degree in English from Boston University.
✍️ FROM CLASSROOMS TO CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Speare taught English before marrying Alden Speare in 1936 and raising their two children. She began publishing stories and articles in magazines, eventually turning her interest in American history into novels for young readers.
🧙♀️ A WITCH, A WETLAND & A NEWBERY MEDAL
Her 1958 novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond follows a young girl confronting suspicion and intolerance in colonial Connecticut. The book won the 1959 Newbery Medal and became a beloved classic of American children’s literature.
🏆 A SECOND NEWBERY TRIUMPH
Speare received another Newbery Medal in 1962 for The Bronze Bow, set in Roman-occupied Galilee during the time of Jesus. Its story explores anger, forgiveness, and the difficult choices facing a young Jewish rebel.
📚 ADVENTURES ACROSS AMERICAN HISTORY
Speare’s novels also include Calico Captive, inspired by an eighteenth-century captivity narrative, and The Sign of the Beaver, about a boy surviving on the Maine frontier. Her careful historical research helped make distant times and places vivid for generations of readers.
🌟 TWO NEWBERYS, COUNTLESS YOUNG READERS
In 1989, Speare received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, for her lasting contribution to children’s books. She died in Tucson, Arizona, on November 15, 1994, leaving historical novels that remain widely read and taught.
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