Jennifer Bohnhoff's Blog

I'm in Maine right now, enjoying a summer vacation in a lake-side cottage, with lots of time for bobbing about with the grandkids.

My husband mentioned lately that he craved a pecan pie, and I would have made one for him, except I didn't want to go out and buy a load of ingredients that I wouldn't use up in the next two weeks.

So I improvised with what I had around. My first substitution: using butter instead of vegetable shortening in the pie shell. The resulting crust was rich and flaky. I may do this more often!

My second substitution was using maple sugar instead of karo syrup. This seemed like a no brainer. After all, I'm in New England, where much of the US's maple syrup is made! And I knew I couldn't use a whole bottle of karo syrup up any time soon. However, maple syrup has a thinner consistency than karo syrup, so I had to account for this in my recipe. I added a tablespoon of flour, and that was all the adjusting I needed to do!

Also, I wasn't in my kitchen, so I didn't have my equipment. Again, I improvised. First, instead of whirring the flour and shortening together in my food processor, I cut the butter into the flour using a fork. This was not as time consuming as I had feared, but I still prefer to use the food processor. 

Usually I use a piece of plastic wrap to chill my dough, and then a piece of wax paper to roll it out. This time, I used one piece of plastic wrap for both purposes.

The recipe I found on the internet that I used as a guide for this pie called for prebaking the crust, so that it wouldn't get soggy on the bottom. I don't normally do this, but I found that the effort was well worth it. Prebaking usually involves putting a piece of parchment paper into the crust, then filling the pie shell with dried beans. Because I had neither parchment paper nor beans, I improvised this step as well, using coffee filters, another pie pan, and a small casserole dish. The coffee filters stop the second pie plate from sticking to the pastry, the pie plate stops the crust from puffing up, and the small casserole dish added the weight that held the pie plate in place. 

Working in a strange kitchen can be a bit unsettling. I think we all have our favorite spatula and feel a bit lost without it. But in this case, things worked out just fine. The results came out pretty good; good enough to share.

Maple Pecan PieCrust: 1 1/4 cup flour1 tsp sugar1/2 cup cold, salted butter1/4 cup ice water 
Place flour and sugar in a bowl. Mix with a fork. Cut the stick of butter in half longways, then turn and cut longways again so that you have 4 long sticks. Cut the sticks  into little cubes. Sprinkle the cubes over the flour and sugar mixture, then cut them in with a fork. (Cutting in means smash the butter, blending it into the flour until there are no big pieces left. Add the ice water, and stir and mix with the fork until the dough becomes one large clump. If this doesn't happen, add a little more water, half a teaspoon at a time, until it does. Press that clump into a round ball.
Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap (or use plastic wrap to cover the bowl in which you mixed the dough) and put it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. 
While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 425°
When the dough has chilled, take it out of the refrigerator. Spread the plastic wrap on the counter and sprinkle it with flour. Put the ball of dough in the middle of the plastic, then turn it over so that the top is floured. Moving your rolling pin from the middle of the ball to the edges, roll your dough out on the plastic wrap. When your dough is spread out enough that you can place your pie plate upside down on the dough and see an inch of dough all the way around, pick up the plastic wrap and flip it, the dough, and the pie plate over. Your dough is now in the pie plate! Peel off the plastic and crimp the edge of the dough, cutting off excess and using it in places that need it. 
To prebake pie shell: place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pie shell. You may need to use two or three, overlapping them to fit. Place another pie plate on top of the coffee filter. If you don't have a second pie plate, you could try using a round casserole or a plate. What you need is something that generally fills the bottom and keeps it from puffing up in the oven. My second pie plate was smaller than the first (which is why you can see a ridge around the edge of my pie, just outside the filling). It was also light, so I placed a little round ceramic casserole dish (probably intended for souffles) inside my second dish to hold it down. 
Place pie plate in oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Take out of oven, remove pie plate (and casserole if using) and coffee filters. Return to oven for an additional 5 minutes.
Take pieshell out of oven and place on a rack to cool. Reset oven temperature to 350°
Pie Filling: 3 cups pecan halves5 TBS melted butter1/2 cup brown sugar1 TBS flour2 tsp vanilla3 eggs1 cup maple syrup
Measure 3 cups of pecan halves. Pick out 3/4 cup of the best looking nuts and set aside.Pour the remaining 2 1/4 cup pecans into the cooled pie shell. 
I melted my butter by putting it in my mixing bowl and microwaving it, but you can do it any way you want. 
Add the brown sugar and flour to the melted butter and stir to mix.Add the vanilla and eggs and stir until they egg is well distributed.Add the maple syrup and stir well again. 
Carefully pour the butter/sugar/egg mixture over the nuts in the pie shell.Place the reserved 3/4 cup of nuts and place them on top the pie. I like to do this in concentric circles. 
Bake the pie at 350° for 40-50 minutes. If your crust begins to get too brown, you can tent it with aluminum foil (assuming you have some, which I didn't!)

The history of the horse in North America is  controversial right now. Historians have long asserted that Spanish explorers introduced horses to the Americas. First arriving in Hispaniola in the Caribbean with Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493, six horses reached the North American mainland with Hernán Cortés in 1519. Following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, horses that were abandoned or escaped the Spanish adapted to the wild, becoming known as mustangs. Many were sold throughout the extensive Indigenous trade network, spreading thousands of miles long before Europeans entered the region.
But few know that the horse had its origins in North America. The Eohippus, ("dawn horse"), also scientifically known as Hyracotherium, developed in North America some 50 million years ago. This browser was approximately the size of a dog, but over millions of years, it grew and evolved into the Equus, our modern horse. It is believed that horses later crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Asia before they vanished from its home turf. Equus scotti, the last of the horses that lived in North America, disappeared about 10,000 years ago, just about the same time as other megafauna such as mammoths and saber toothed tigers did.
Some groups claim that horses never died out here, and that the Indigenous Peoples had horses long before the Spanish came.


Cyd Raschke's Home of the Spirit Animals (2025, Raven+Grace Press, ISBN 9798992383836) tells the story of how the first foal from Spanish horses might have been born in the Americas. The 2026 Spur Award for both Best Western Juvenile Fiction and Best First Novel, it follows a Native American girl who longs to return to her tribe after many years as a slave, and a Spanish Moor who is shipwrecked on the Texas coast. 
Diego had been sailing with a group of beautiful horses that were bound for Cathay when a hurricane sunk his ship. The year is 1496, and Europeans have not yet figured out that the Americas stand between them and the Far East. The San Esteban is charged with establishing a trading enterprise for exporting horses to China and Japan, and carries Andalusian, Arabian, and Galician horses. When the ship goes down, Diego manages to save the horses, but finds himself alone in a land that he believes is Java. He doesn't understand the customs or the language.
Sixteen-year-old Nemae came from a tribe that lived in what is now called the Texas hill country. When she was quite young, her father was killed in a war with other tribes, and she and her mother taken captive. They now live along the coast, and her mother has integrated into her new tribe, marrying and having a child, but Nemae continues to feel like an outcast. She dreams of majestic creatures, calling them the spirit animals of legend, and when Diego arrives with his horses, she believes they are calling her to something greater.
The two build a relationship as they travel to find her people, and a place that will accept a stranger and his strange new animals. Some people are hesitant or even terrified of the horses, while others are curious. Nemae and Diego advocate for them, showing how the animals can be used for hunting, transportation, and even protection. They also must argue that, unlike deer, the horses are not good to eat. Convincing the superstitious and tradition-bound people does not come easily.
This story of the reintroduction of horses to the Americas, is either upper middle grade or YA. It has some content that might be confusing or disturbing to younger readers, including some violence and some male predation of the subservient Nemae. It isn't graphic, but parents and teachers will want to talk with their readers about some sections.
About the Author Cyd Raschke grew up in rural Washington State, where a relative placed her atop a palomino Belgian when she was a toddler. One inspiration for this story was to correct assumptions that wild horses are not native to America.She set the novel in Texas after learning the story of Mustang Island, and visiting Hill Country where she saw how ideal the land would be for horses to thrive. 
Ms. Raschke has a PhD in Social Psychology. She and her husband live in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where they raised two sons. Of Alaskan Native and Scandinavian heritage, Cyd feels a sense of loss of legacy shared by many descendants of Indigenous Nations and was grateful for the chance to share some of her native culture through this story. It is her first novel. 
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former middle school and highschool history and language arts teacher. She lives in the mountains of centralNew Mexico and writes historical and contemporary fiction for middle gradethrough adult readers. She is available to lecture on the history behind herstories.

The booklink in the above blog will take you to Bookshop.org, an online bookseller that gives 75% of its profits toindependent bookstores, authors, and reviewers. If you click through and make a purchase on Bookshop.org, Ms. Bohnhoff will receive a commission, andBookshop.org will give a matching commission to independent booksellers. But don't feel compelled to buy! Feel free to browse the author's lists and find the books you’re interestedin at your local library.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is ready to pass along her gently used, signed copy of Home of the Spirit Animals. If you'd like to be considered for it, leave a comment to this blog, and I'll pick one commenter at random and contact via email for mailing directions. 

Last week my hiking buddies and I went to Bandelier NationalMonument, and got not only a beautiful hike, but a lesson in New Mexicohistory.

Bandelier is a 33,677-acre site in Frijoles Canyon. It is nearLos Alamos on the Pajarito Plateau.  Over70% of the 50 square miles of the monument is wilderness, with only 3 miles ofroad and more than 70 miles of hiking trails. The whole area is dotted with theremains of ancient villages.

Bandelier was designated a national monument by PresidentWoodrow Wilson in 1916. It was named for Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-Americananthropologist and archaeologist who spent eight years among the Pueblo tribesof New Mexico. Bandelier researched the cultures of the area before he wrote TheDelight Makers, a novel set within the prehistoric Indian culture of theSouthwest. In October of 1880, a man from the Cochiti Pueblo named Jose Montoyabrought Adolph Bandelier to the area and Bandelier proclaimed the cliffdwellings "the grandest thing I ever saw." Recognizing the importanceof its heritage, the National Park Service cooperates with surrounding Pueblos,other federal agencies, and state agencies to manage the park.

The first site that we came to was Tyuonyi (Que-weh-nee), acircular pueblo site that once stood up to three stories tall. Tree-ring datingof fragments of ceiling beams recovered from various rooms show that site datesfrom 1383 and 1466, during what is called the Pueblo IV Era. Other parts of thestructure suggest that building may have begun around 1150, in what is called thePueblo III Era.

The Pueblo III Era appears to have been a tumultuous timefor the indigenous population. During this period, deep drought, environmentalstress, and social unrest caused a wide-scale migration of Ancestral Puebloansaway from the Four Corners area. Many of those migrants may have moved into FrijolesCanyon. Archaeological surveys of the area have found thousands of individualsites, but they were not all occupied at the same time. During the ClassicPeriod, defined as AD 1325 to 1550, the population may have peaked. Most pueblosfrom this period have between 150 and 500 rooms each, with the largest containingapproximately 1,500 rooms. This suggests a large population, though a specifictotal number of residents for the entire monument is not officially cited inany of the literature I found.

Near Tyounyi is the Long House. Built along the base of thecliff, these structures were 3 to 4 stories tall and supported by the walls ofthe canyon. The foundations of rock walls delineate the lower floors, while beamholes and cavates, the term for rooms artificially hollowed out of tuff, the softvolcanic rock, form the upper floors.

After that, we walked another half a mile to the AlcoveHouse.  Formerly
known as CeremonialCave, this cave sits 140 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon and isaccessed by 4 wooden ladders and a number of stone stairs. Archaeologistsbelieve that approximately 25 Ancestral Pueblo people lived with Alcove House.There is a reconstructed kiva on the site, and viga holes and niches thatsuggest where the homes were. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to climbthese ladders while carrying water from the stream below.
That is yours truly in the navy shirt and white cap. I am terribly afraid of heights and really proud of myself for making it both up to the top and down again. I cannot tell you which was harder!
 

Farther up the canyon, we spied ladders dug into the cliffwalls and conjectured that they led to other places that may have beeninhabited.

Bandelier was abandoned by 1600, when its inhabitantsrelocated to Cochiti, San Ildefonso, and other pueblos near the Rio Grande.These pueblos remain occupied. 

 

In addition to showcasing ancient structures, the park is famousfor the park headquarters and visitor center, buildings that were built in the1930s by crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps. There is a museum, a giftshop, and a café included in these buildings.

For more information about visiting Bandelier, click here. 

 

Last month, I went with a couple offriends and my husband to do some exploring in Southern New Mexico. One of theplaces we visited is called "The Catwalk.” This place may be a populartourist attraction now, but 120 years ago, it was all business, and thatbusiness was mining.

The Catwalk National Recreation Trail islocated within the Gila National Forest. It is situated near the small town ofGlenwood, approximately 65 miles northwest of Silver City. To get there, turneast off U.S. Highway 180 onto NM-174, which is also called Catwalk Road, anddrive roughly 5 miles to the trailhead parking lot. Catwalk road crosses thestream, and while the water was very low when we went, it may be flooded andimpassable during heavy rain or spring runoff.

The Catwalk goes into Whitewater Canyon,which contained a large number of very productive mines, including theConfidence. Because of the cost of moving the heavy ore, it was preferable toprocess gold and silver ores as close to the mines as possible. However,Whitewater Canyon was too narrow to permit processing.

In 1893, John T. Graham established an ore-processing facility at the entrance to Whitewater Canyon to help serve those mines. A small town grew up around the mill. Sometimes it is known as Graham after its founder, and sometimes it is called Whitewater after its location. The town quickly grew to have 200 residents, one of which, William Antrim, the town blacksmith, was Billy the Kid’s stepfather. Whitewater Canyon was a favorite hideout of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, and of Apaches, including Geronimo.


However, the mill’s steam generators needed a good, steady supply of water. A water pipe, four inches in diameter, was constructed between Graham and the high mountain waters to make sure the generators and the town would be supplied. The pipe was encased in a wooden sheathe that was packed in sawdust to prevent freezing. By 1897, the town and mill’s needs had increased so much that an eighteen-inch pipe was constructed parallel to the original, four-inch line. In what was considered quite an engineering feat for the time, holes were drilled into the canyon walls to help brace the pipes, which ran some twenty feet above the canyon floor, and because the whole line needed monitoring and repair, a catwalk—a narrow walkway—ran the whole length of the pipe.

Beleaguered by profitability, waterissues, and flooding, the mill never made the huge profits that Graham had hopedfor. By 1904, the population had dropped low enough that the post office closed.The mill itself closed in 1913, and the town faded away

soon after that. Allthat remains of the mill now are some foundations and a few walls that blendinto the canyon just above the parking lot. Rusted old pipes and a few wiresand braces from the original waterline appear along the trail.

The town may have died, but the Catwalkitself has stayed vital. In the mid-1930's the Civilian Conservation Corps, thework program developed by F.D. Roosevelt to combat the rampant unemployment ofthe Great Depression rebuilt the Catwalk as a tourist attraction.  In 2012, the Whitewater-Baldy Fire destroyedmuch of the vegetation upstream, leading to massive flooding that washed awaythe work that the CCC had done. The bridge system was rebuilt and is now openfor approximately .5 miles from the parking lot. This is a very accessible areaand easily hiked by all ages and abilities, including wheelchairs. After thebridge system, the trail has been cleared for another .5 - .75 miles. Beyondthat, backpackers can follow a much more rugged trail.

 Todaythe area is managed by the Gila National Forest as a day-use area. It has picnic tables and restrooms.

 

Gold and silver were first discovered inthe Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico by James C. Cooney, who was born in 1840and came to the U.S. from Ireland to escape the potato famine. He joined theArmy and was a sergeant in the 8th U.S. Cavalry when he was posted to FortBayard, near Silver City, New Mexico in 1870. He was scouting in the MogollonMountain’s Mineral Creek Canyon, north of Mogollon and east of Alma, when hediscovered rich gold and silver deposits. Cooney kept his discovery a secretuntil his military discharge in 1875. A year later, he began working the claim,called the Silver Bar Mine, with his partner Harry McAllister. The mine proveditself to be the richest claim in the new district, and Cooney’s little miningcamp became a town. Although it was no more than a handful of tents, log cabinsand rough wooden buildings, it, and but it and Cooney Peak, rising up in thedistance, must have made the ex-cavalry sergeant very proud as well as rich.

Cooney wouldn’t live long enough toenjoy his prosperity. In the early evening of April 28, 1880, Chiricahua Apache
warriors led by Victorio struck Cooney’s silver mine, killing two miners andwounding a third. After dark, Cooney and another man, William Chick, rode downthe canyon to warn local settlers of the danger. The next morning, believingthe raiders had moved on, Chick and Cooney decided to ride back to the mine. Acouple of miles up the canyon, the Apaches caught and killed them both. Thewarriors then spread out, targeting shepherds and their families. According to TheWeekly New Mexican, "one hundred thousand head of sheep...were scatteredor killed," and at least 41 people were murdered in what came to be knownas the Alma Massacre. The violence continued until U.S. Army troops from FortBayard, forced Victorio and his warriors to withdraw from the area.

Cooney’s older brother, Captain MichaelCooney, collaborated with fellow miners to create a tomb near the site wherethe miner was massacred. They used black powder explosives, drills, and handchisels to create a cavity large enough to accommodate Cooney's coffin in alarge boulder. The miners then sealed the entrance with a mixture of cement andlocal ore sourced from Cooney's own silver claims, protecting him from scavengers,floods, and further raids. Located north of Alma along Forest Road 701, thetomb is now a historical landmark, protected by barriers and marked by a plaque. It is a testament to practical frontieringenuity and group solidarity among prospectors operating in lawless terrain.

The Alma Massacre remains one of thedeadliest single raids in the Apache Wars, illustrating the brutal reality offrontier conflict where civilians bore the heaviest casualties. However, thethreat of violence was not enough to keep miners from the area. By 1887, theMogollon/Cooney district had become the largest producer of gold and silver inNew Mexico, yielding somewhere between $5 and $7 million in gold and silverover the next decade. By 1889 the town of Cooney had grown to 600 residents, aschool, a church, and two hotels. But silver prices collapsed in the 1890s, andthe town’s population began to dwindle. A disastrous flood that scoured thecanyon in 1911 finally put an end to the town.

By John Phelan - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...


Last weekend I gave another of my lectures on the Civil War on Route 66. This time, the venue was the Gutierrez Hubbell House. My only regret is that I didn't go there much sooner. 
The Gutiérrez Hubbell House is a historic, territorial-style hacienda in Albuquerque's South Valley, in the village of Pajarito. Although there was a house on the site that dated back to the 1820s, when the property was part of a 40,000 acre estate owned by Clemente and Josefa Gutiérrez, most of the existing structure was built in the 1850s and 1860s, after  James Lawrence Hubbell married their great-granddaughter and heir, Julianita.
Hubbell came to New Mexico in 1846 as part of the American Expedition into Mexican territory led by General Stephen Watts Kearny. The twenty-two year old captain was born in Connecticut to an Anglo father and a Hispanic mother. Evidently, he liked the country and its inhabitants, for he resigned his commission and married Julianita Gutiérrez in 1849, when she was just sixteen years old.

Julianita came from a prominent ranching and trading family. The Gutiérrezes were related to the Baca family and the Chaves clan, both powerhouses in New Mexico politics. Her paternal grandfather was among the first governors to serve New Mexico when it was still under Mexican rule. 
Santiago may have resigned his commission after the Mexican American War ended, but he rejoined during the Civil War, when Confederates threatened the territory. He organized and commanded a company of New Mexico Mounted Volunteers, called "Hubbell's Cavalry Company" or Company B of the 5th New Mexico Infantry Volunteers. As their Captain, Hubbell led his men in the front lines at the Battle of Valverde, defending the McRae Battery when it  suffered a frontal attack. From a company of seventy-four men, thirty-nine (53% of the total company) were killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates were able to overrun the battery and take possession of six guns.  After the battle, Captain P.W.L. Plymptom, a US Regular Army officer, sent in a report explaining that his battalion had failed to save the guns from the Confederate charge because New Mexican Volunteers had broken from their position. Hubbell contested this report and was unhappy with how his volunteers were treated by regular army. 

After the war, Santiago and Julianita continued to build onto their house with the help of their twelve children. Located along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro,the oldest continuously used European roadway in North America, which runs north from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), north of Santa Fe, the house was a natural stop for travelers and became one of the  important parajes, or camp locations, along the trail. It was used as a stagecoach stop, a trading post, and a post office in addition to being a private home. Trading must have become second nature to the Hubbells . The third of Santiago and Julianita's children, Don (John) Lorenzo Hubbell, established the famous Hubbell Trading Post located on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Ganado, Arizona.
The house, which has existed under three national flags, (Spain, Mexico and the United States) is listed on the State of New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties as a symbol of the blending of Spanish, Native American and Anglo cultures and traditions, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is managed by the National Park Service and offers a traditional garden and a heritage garden as well as walking trails along the acequia madre (mother ditch) and around the property, and cultivated farm plots for visitors to enjoy. I was charmed by the displays within the house, which included a room with an extensive timeline, the room where the young sons slept, a room that served as a general store, and the main living room. The thickness of the walls, the vigas in the ceilings, and the territorial trim around the windows was impressive. 
Click here to download a pdf of the guide to this historical site.Click here to download a self-guided tour of the veterans interred in Fairview Cemetery.
click here to see trails in the south valley area. 

Dark Treason: An American Revolution Spy Thriller is thefourth book in Robert J. Skead’s American Revolutionary War Adventures,a middle grade historical fiction series intended for readers between the ageof 8 and 12.

The series begins with Patriots, Redcoats & Spies,set in 1777, when twin boys John and Ambrose Clark are 14 years old. After theirfather is shot by British soldiers, the boys discover their father is part ofthe Culper Spy Ring. They decide to fulfill their father’s mission of getting asecret message to General George Washington, a trip filled with danger andintrigue. The series continues into 1778 with Submarines, Secrets & ADaring Rescue, in which the twins help transport gunpowder to the patriots,man one of the first submarines, and attempt to rescue one of their olderbrothers from prison. In book 3, Links to Liberty, John and Ambrose helpdefend the Great Chain that stretched across the Hudson River at West Point,blocking British war ships in 1779.

Now it is 1780, and John and Ambrose are seventeen-year-olds.Ambrose is training to join the dragoons,
while John is studying at Yale tobecome a preacher. Both become involved when Benedict Arnold, the hero who capturedFort Ticonderoga in 1775 and was wounded in the 1777 Battle of Saratoga, traitorouslytries to give his present command post, West Point, to the British throughtheir master spy, Major John André.

Skead has done an excellent job of integrating his fictitiouscharacters among a host of historical ones that young readers should know.  Especially now, when the nation is celebratingits 250th year, this series helps readers understand both the tragedyand triumph events that shaped America. Well grounded in real events andpeopled with real people, including Patriots George Washington and BenjaminTallmadge, and those on the other side, including Major John Andre, BenedictArnold and his young wife, Peggy, young readers are encouraged to enhance theirunderstanding through the historical letters and biographical information inthe back of the book. There are also discussion questions and a glossary. Additional teacher materials are available on his website.

The book ends with hints that a fifth book will further explorethe role of the Culper Spy Ring, especially Agent 355, a mysterious woman wholived in New York and may have played a significant role in gatheringinformation for the Patriots.  

Robert Skead lives in Wyckoff, NJ, and frequently visitsclassrooms to visit with his readers. You can learn more about him and hisbooks at his website. 

 

Last October I published Perspective, a middle grade novel set in Duluth and Isle Royale during the Great Depression.

It's the story of a twelve year old girl who wants to grow up to be an artist. Genevieve lives a comfortable and quiet life with her mother, a high school English teacher. Their Duluth apartment isn't fancy, but it has all the modern comforts made possible by electrification and indoor plumbing.

When Genevieve's mother dies of lung cancer, her whole world comes apart. She is sent to live with her Aunt Gertrude, Uncle Edwin, and their two spoiled sons, and in spite the fact that Uncle Edwin drives a fine DeSoto and Aunt Gertrude wears a mink coat, they announce that they simply cannot keep Genevieve once they discover that they will not be able to put their fingers on her money. Aunt Gertrude buys her niece a one way ticket to Isle Royale, where she is to live with the father she's never known.

Genevieve must adapt to a much more rustic way of life. She learns to appreciate the beauty of the island even if she finds its seclusion difficult at times. But just as she's finally beginning to understand what destroyed her parent's relationship, she discovers that she may have to leave Isle Royale.
Genevieve must learn that perspective is not just a theory in art, but a way of seeing the world through the lens of forgiveness and patience.

Once Perspective was published, I intended to give away some related books. Some were resources I used while writing my own books. Others are books I came across and set aside because I thought they were similar to mine and would be of interest to my readers. 

But I forgot. Don't ask me how. Just recently I looked at one of my bookshelves and there were the books I'd intended to give away.

So here I am, months later, offering books related to the Great Depression and Isle Royale. Leave a note in the comments if you'd like me to send you one of them. And if you'd like a copy of Perspective, I can offer that, too!

Not Lucille by Mike Steele (published by Creative James Media, June 24, 2025, EAN/UPC 9781965648070) 

Ten-year-old Lucy Contento can't seem to control her impulsive behavior, blurting out in the classroom and doing things without thinking. When she's assigned to the rigid disciplinarian Miss Gillingham's Fifth Grade Class, it seems she's destined to spend every afternoon in after school detention, sitting with the teacher who insists on calling her Lucille and making her write with her right hand even though she's a Leftie. One afternoon she sneaks onto the campus of the Deefies, what the neighborhood kids disparagingly call a nearby school for the Deaf, and makes a friend of Florence, a profoundly deaf girl who doesn't mind Lucy's flaws. From there, the story of friendship and acceptance blooms. Lucy learns to advocate for both herself and for Florence as she comes to terms with the quirks that everyone has, even the straight-laced Miss Gillingham and her grumpy neighbor Mrs. Ricci. This is a sweet and empowering book that will melt your heart and give you hope. The author provides an afterword that helps today’s readers understand how very different the world was in the 1930s.



The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez (published by Tu Books, October 30, 2018, EAN/UPC 9781620147801)

Ten-year-old Margaríta Sandoval's family leaves New Mexico, where they have deep and traditional roots, to move to Fort Steele, Wyoming when her father finds a job with the railroad. She misses living among Hispanics, especially her beloved Abuelita, and feels so rootless that she fears the wind might blow her away. Margaríta meets Evangeline and is pleased to have a friend her own age, but soon encounters prejudice and misunderstanding. Things get really tense when the Sandovals learn that Abuelita might lose her land and the family's ancestral home unless they can pay off her tax bill. This lovely, gentle story is sprinkled with Spanish dichos, wise sayings that will ring true in any language. It teaches about a culture that few understand was here and thriving for centuries, and continues today.








Diaries of an Isle Royale Fisherman by Elling Seglem (Published by Isle Royale Natural History Association, November 15, 2002, ISBN-13: 978-0935289138)

Elling Seglem was a Norwegian immigrant, who lived in Chicago, where he worked as a photographer during the winter. He had a summer home on Isle Royale and each summer between 1920 and 1932 he fished the waters of Lake Superior. This book has reproductions of his journals, in which he tells of the hard work and simple pleasures of island living. It also includes his correspondence, much of it in newspaper-format letters sent home to his family in Chicago.

Seglem's sense of humor and attention to detail make his writing a delight to read, and the drawings, cartoons and historic photographs really add to our understanding of what life was like for him and the other people who lived on the island.






Diaries of an Isle Royale School Teacher by Dorothy Simonson (Published by Book Concern Printers, December 1996, ISBN: 0-9352289-02)

In 1932, Dorothy Simonson got a job teaching the six children of the Johnsons, a family who lived on Isle Royale. Her students were between 18 and 5, and she taught them in the school house in which she and her young son, Bob, also lived. This book is the transcribed diary of heer eight months on the Island, and in it she shows how she faced both the joys and the hardships of an isolated winter with honesty and humor.

A lot of the details in Perspective—things like the name of the boat on which my character travels and how long it took, what people ate and what they missed from the mainland—come from this book. 












Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale by Peter Oikarinen (Published by University of Minnesota Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-0816653362)



This book is a collection of stories and photographs about the people who made a life on Isle Royale, both before it became a National Park and after. These interviews share the voice and recalled memories of the people who've lived and worked in a beautiful and sometimes deadly environment.

 Often my husband and I don't have time to make breakfast, but we want a good, filling, high protein meal without all the additives that come with prepackaged food. For instance, we usually start Tuesdays with a swim. The public pool opens at 6 am, and it takes 45 minutes to drive there. We don't eat before we leave, and when we return home, we are famished and want food immediately. 

That's when meals like Sheet Pan Eggs come in very handy. I make up a batch the night before and store it in the refrigerator. When I want to eat, a short wait as it microwaves is all it takes to have a hot, healthy meal.

Sheet Pan Eggs are great to make if you're serving brunch for a crowd, or it's a good way to stock up your freezer with healthy breakfasts. Plus, the recipe is adaptable so you'll be able to vary it to your own tastes, provide variety to your meals, or use up leftovers. 

Sheet Pan Eggs

Preheat oven to 350° Grease a large rimmed baking sheet.

Whisk together the following in a large bowl. Pour into the prepared packing sheet.

18 large eggs

1/4 cup milk (I use fat free, but use whatever works for you)

1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp onion powder

Sprinkle the egg mixture with: 

1 10-12 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup cooked turkey sausage

This is where you can get creative. Substitute just about any cooked veggie for the spinach. Think broccoli, sliced or diced bell peppers, chopped onion, sliced mushrooms, asparagus spears, carrots, sweet potatoes, or any leftovers you have lying around. 

Substitute cottage cheese for the cheddar, or try swiss, monterey jack, or colby.

Instead of turkey sausage, use regular sausage, ham, diced bacon, cooked salmon or whatever your heart desires!

 Bake until just set, about 25-30 minutes. Cut into twelve squares and serve. You can top the square with sour cream or salsa for extra flavor.

To make ahead, cover sheet pan and refrigerate until ready to serve. Heat individual pieces in the microwave for 30-60 seconds, using a microwave safe place and covering with a paper towel. 

Or wrap squares individually in plastic wrap and place in a sealed container. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. 

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former English and History teacher who writes contemporary and historical fiction for middle grade readers through adults. She lives in New Mexico, where many of her stories are set. But even authors have to eat, so she plays around in the kitchen. Sometimes her recipes are good enough to share.