 |
| THE SECRET OF THE BRADFORD HOUSE by Albert A. Bell, Jr
In the land of cyberspace – where bloggers and tweets and
information circle the globe at racing speeds – I look forward to a slower
pace; I love cuddling up with a good book. And like our five children, I’ll take my historical fiction
with real-life mystery, epic characters, and page turning suspense.
When our children were in middle grades I searched high and
low to find historical fiction that was both entertaining and accurate. I found Brian Jacques, G.A. Henty, The
American Girls Collection, Catherine Marshall, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and now
our very own Michigander, Dr. Albert Bell.
I first met Albert Bell at an SCBWI-MI Fall Conference in
2010. Intrigued by his studious
demeanor, I decided to do a bit of research. I found a historian, a professor, a person who invests his
time back into community, and an author of compelling historical fiction; I
also found my two teenage boys peering over my shoulder and asking for his
latest book, THE SECRET OF THE BRADFORD HOUSE. When teenagers ask for historical fiction, I run and buy it.
What I enjoyed most about THE SECRET OF THE BRADFORD HOUSE
was the emphasis Dr. Bell put on relationships throughout the book. Real life happenings, realistic
characters – all wrapped around secrecy and suspense. At times I cried because of remembrances from my own
childhood. Many times I laughed at
the child-like distinctiveness each character resonated. But when I tried to second-guess the
story, I was fooled and surprised, many times over.
Our family of readers couldn’t put the book down. I loved the book and highly recommend
it.
Look for my Q & A interview with Albert Bell over the
next two weeks.
 |
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment