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Maine author Lea Wait writes acclaimed historical novels for ages 7 and up, set on the coast of Maine. She did her undergraduate work at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and her graduate work at New York University. While she was raising the four Asian daughters she adopted as a single parent, she worked as a manager for AT&T. Now she divides her time between her writing and her antique print business. Lea Wait is also the author of Scribner’s Shadows Antique Print Mystery series, traditional mysteries for adults. |
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Finest Kind It’s 1838, and 12-year-old Jake Webber and his family have moved from Boston to a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Wiscasset, Maine, after Jake’s father lost his job and his savings. The Webbers aren’t used to the isolation of country living, or the work it requires. They also have to protect their darkest secret: Jake’s 7-year-old brother, Frankie, who is partially paralyzed, has “fits” and cannot talk. Because Frankie would be seen by others as the visible reflection of his parents’ sins, no one must know he exists. With Jake’s father away and his mother caring for Frankie, the responsibility of preparing for their first Maine winter and keeping the family together lands on Jake’s shoulders. Jake’s new friends include Nabby, a girl whose family also has a secret, Simon a simple-minded man who helps them both, Granny McPherson, who many people in town think is a witch, and the keeper of the local jail, where Jake finds a job, and confronts his biggest challenge. How Jake finds the courage and strength to care for his family, keep their secrets, and face their troubles is at the heart of this powerful book. |
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Wintering Well Cassie’s journal entry, “What happened this afternoon is too terrible to write ... Please God, let Will live. And please, God, forgive me,” opens her dramatic story, and that of her older brother, Will, as they are both forced to reexamine their lives after a farm accident leaves Will without a leg—and without hope. After a winter of healing, Will knows his future must be away from the farm that he loves. He and Cassie go to stay with their older sister and husband in a nearby town. There, with the excitement of Maine’s new statehood (1820) as a backdrop, Will finds that being disabled can be a social handicap as well as a physical one. But with hard work he can win respect—and find exciting possibilities for his future. Living in town opens Cassie’s eyes, too. She sees Will considering career options not open to her, and she wonders if she can be fulfilled keeping a house and a family. Are there other possibilities for a young women in 1820? As Cassie watches Will make his life decisions, she struggled to find her own place in the world. A story of hardship, determination, and the joy of finding the right path in life. Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of 2004; PSLA Young Adult Top 40 Fiction List |
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Seaward Born Thirteen-year-old Michael knows he is lucky. Few slaves in 1805 Charleston are where they want to be. But Michael works on the docks and ships in Charleston Harbor, close to the seas he longs to sail. Life seems good. But then his protective mistress dies, and Michael’s world changes. His friend Jim encourages him to “steal himself”; to run. Michael is torn. Mama always taught him, “to get along, you go along.” But Papa wanted him to be free. “You see a possibility, you take it ... a fish you pull in as a free man tastes ten times sweeter than a fish you catch for a master.” Now Mama and Papa are both dead, and Michael must decide alone. Does he dare risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? If he and Jim are caught, he will have lost everything. But if he stays—is staying safe worth staying a slave? How Michael makes his decision to flee seaward to freedom is the heart of the moving and dramatic story set in an America where slaver is a way of life in the south, and the journey to freedom one of immense courage and mortal danger. Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of 2003; International Reading Association Teacher Choices Booklist, 2004; Children’s Book Council Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, 2004; Keystone State Reading Association List |
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Stopping to Home “Some people are born into the right family. A family that will stay with you no matter what. Some people, like Seth and me, just have each other. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for us. It just means no one’s going to set life down in front of us, ready-made.” Eleven-year-old Abigail Chambers and her younger brother, Seth, have lost their mother to smallpox and their father to the sea. It is 18096, in the Maine seaport of Wiscasset, and their future is uncertain. With no family to watch out for them, Abbie and Seth must make a new life; find a new home. Working for the young widow of a sea captain may be a temporary answer—but only if Seth keeps out of trouble and Widow Chase finds a way to support herself. As the months pass Abbie and Seth find more questions than answers. Until Abbie has an idea that may be the solution for all of them. But first Widow Chase must listen, and Seth must leave the past behind. Smithsonian Magazine Notable Children’s Books of 2001; Bank Street College “Best of the Best” |
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