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Pictures, 1918
Growing up in a Texas town during World War I, Asia McKinna struggles to understand the frailty of her grandmother, the strain of the war, her feelings for her friend Nick, and the uneasiness caused by the mysterious fires plaguing her town.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1998
About the author
Jeanette Ingold
10 books24 followers I love road trips and museums, mountains and woods, libraries and old houses, mysterious photographs, and people with stories to tell. I’m a Montanan who grew up in New York in a family of Texans. I’ve a husband, two kids, a pair of grandkids, and a dog named Mica. Most of my best friends are other writers, and my days don’t feel right when I don’t begin them by putting words on the page. And that all leads to books.
Many of those road trips have been to national parks where I’ve seen countless small signs saying that CCC youth build this turnout or that lodge. They made me curious about who those young people were and why they worked so hard.
The result was HITCH, a novel that brings one of my most-beloved Texas characters, Moss Trawnley, to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in central Montana. I’m pleased to report that the newest edition of HITCH is a great audiobook recording from Audible.
Young people tackling hard jobs is a theme that runs through all of my novels. THE BIG BURN first brought my writing home to the Northwest. This is a place where forest fires shape land and lives and where young people like my son in his college days sometimes spend their summers on fire crews.
I was delighted when VOYA called this fictional account of the terrible 1910 wildfires “a must-read for adrenalin junkies,” but I hope it will also provoke thought about some of the factors that lie behind the forest fires of today.
PAPER DAUGHTER, my newest novel, tells two stories of teens making their way in the adult world. One is a Chinese immigrant living under a false identity in Exclusion Era days. The other is Maggie Chen, an intern at a Seattle newspaper. I had fun writing her experiences there. My own first writing job was in a newsroom, and looking back, I have to think I couldn’t have asked for a better place to hone my craft.
I don’t put my life into my books, exactly, but bits and pieces do, of course, make their way in, reshaped and sometimes carried far beyond where I might have gone.
MOUNTAIN SOLO is about a passion for music—for a violin, especially—and about the hard choices that can come with great talent. I’ve played mine only enough—in high school and now picked up again--to have a huge respect for anyone who works hard at learning an instrument.
THE WINDOW is about a different kind of courage—the kind needed by a teenage girl facing blindness. It was my first book and, along with two others, is set in Texas. The heroine, Mandy, finds support in family and family stories, and that’s another theme that I like to explore.
Mine was an airline family, and the tales my mom and dad told led me to write AIRFIELD. It’s about two teens who talk themselves into jobs at a small airport in the sometimes romantic, sometimes terrifying early days of commercial aviation.
And finally there’s PICTURES, 1918, to be released as an eBook later this year. I wrote it wanting to put my grandmother’s voice on paper, as well to capture the magic of photography, whether it’s done with an old-fashioned film camera or on the newest phone. I hope you’ll look for it and let me know what you think!
Many of those road trips have been to national parks where I’ve seen countless small signs saying that CCC youth build this turnout or that lodge. They made me curious about who those young people were and why they worked so hard.
The result was HITCH, a novel that brings one of my most-beloved Texas characters, Moss Trawnley, to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in central Montana. I’m pleased to report that the newest edition of HITCH is a great audiobook recording from Audible.
Young people tackling hard jobs is a theme that runs through all of my novels. THE BIG BURN first brought my writing home to the Northwest. This is a place where forest fires shape land and lives and where young people like my son in his college days sometimes spend their summers on fire crews.
I was delighted when VOYA called this fictional account of the terrible 1910 wildfires “a must-read for adrenalin junkies,” but I hope it will also provoke thought about some of the factors that lie behind the forest fires of today.
PAPER DAUGHTER, my newest novel, tells two stories of teens making their way in the adult world. One is a Chinese immigrant living under a false identity in Exclusion Era days. The other is Maggie Chen, an intern at a Seattle newspaper. I had fun writing her experiences there. My own first writing job was in a newsroom, and looking back, I have to think I couldn’t have asked for a better place to hone my craft.
I don’t put my life into my books, exactly, but bits and pieces do, of course, make their way in, reshaped and sometimes carried far beyond where I might have gone.
MOUNTAIN SOLO is about a passion for music—for a violin, especially—and about the hard choices that can come with great talent. I’ve played mine only enough—in high school and now picked up again--to have a huge respect for anyone who works hard at learning an instrument.
THE WINDOW is about a different kind of courage—the kind needed by a teenage girl facing blindness. It was my first book and, along with two others, is set in Texas. The heroine, Mandy, finds support in family and family stories, and that’s another theme that I like to explore.
Mine was an airline family, and the tales my mom and dad told led me to write AIRFIELD. It’s about two teens who talk themselves into jobs at a small airport in the sometimes romantic, sometimes terrifying early days of commercial aviation.
And finally there’s PICTURES, 1918, to be released as an eBook later this year. I wrote it wanting to put my grandmother’s voice on paper, as well to capture the magic of photography, whether it’s done with an old-fashioned film camera or on the newest phone. I hope you’ll look for it and let me know what you think!
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 13, 2016
Quick read that was a blast from a past. I remembered reading this book in middle school and had to find it to read it again! It's a little different from what I remember, but still so good!
January 2, 2024
?? girl what hell even happened
April 19, 2021
Although "I really liked this" I'll still give it the full 5 stars because I was very impressed. Totally delightful all the way through. Good story, easy to follow, read and visualize. Completely wholesome, and believable. This is a long term keeper as I may want to read it again sometime. Maybe I'll keep it next to my genuine Kodak Autographic camera!
September 30, 2012
I did indeed enjoy this Young Adult novel; the writing itself seemed somewhat mechanical on occasion. That said, the historical context for the story itself--1918, a small Texas town, World War I nearing its end, women's roles starting to expand--and the story of a young woman about to graduate are compelling. Fire starters, anti-German sentiment, first love, a comic fishing vacation that results in tragedy, a young woman learning a "man's job" as a studio photographer ring with authenticity. I do believe the author was aiming for a sparse, lean prose but ended up with a flatness of narration, which is the only reason I gave the story 3 instead of 4 stars.
September 10, 2009
Fifteen year old Asia falls in love with a camera, much to the dismay of her parents. Her grandmother encourages her to follow her dreams. She struggles to decide what her dreams include in the face of the war, the Flu epidemic, and conflicting thinking about a woman’s role. Good, positive picture of life during WWI with mystery and romance thrown in, too.
August 26, 2012
Pictures, 1918 combines mystery, history, romance, and drama all into one DCOM-esque package. It's not anything terribly special, but those who love chapter books written for young people will definitely enjoy it.
September 23, 2013
one of the best stories I have read in a long time. It made me think of my grandma and how I remember her but it was more - a girl following her dreams. Glad I picked this up at the library book sale.
August 14, 2011
I love love love this book i have read it 2 times and i recommend it to anyone and everyone.
March 27, 2013
This was a really sad book at first. It got better, and then really good. I don't want to give any spoilers, so I suggest you read it. It is a good book!
August 27, 2017
It is an amazing book, made me want to write something similar. And to take more of my own pictures and learn more about photography's beginning.
January 21, 2022
Engaging story of a teenage girl, in rural Texas, during WW1 that finds magic and a purpose behind a camera.
October 15, 2023
After someone commits arson on her family's farm, Asia focuses on earning enough money to buy a camera while World War I threatens to tear her Texas town apart and her grandmother suffers from lapses in memory.
Reading Pictures, 1918, I was immediately brought back to elementary and middle school English and the kinds of books I read during that time. This, in part, is no doubt due to the year of publication (1998) when, as with other eras, children's books had a particular sort of style to them. You'll find it here: the popular historical fiction genre, told in straightforward prose with themes around family and plenty of symbolism for students to pick at if they so choose. (I opted not to analyze this one, but it's there, no doubt.)
Pictures, 1918 is populated with interesting and simply-drawn characters. Motivations are generally quite clear and the psychological lines of each are easy to distinguish and understand. It's a rather black and white world, necessitated by the brevity of the book, perhaps the author's perception of her audience, and the style of the time of publication (at least as far as I remember). And while some may find the one-dimensional-ness of the characters disinteresting, I found it worked really well in this case. The characters, the plot lines, and the language are steeped in simplicity to make a time that was anything but accessible while still acknowledging the complexity of this historical and personal moment for main character Asia.
One of the more interesting story lines involves a teen boy who seems psychologically damaged by the war, and while World War I is mentioned mostly in passing terms, its impact on the characters, their lives, and the story holds a heavy weight just below the surface and thrums, giving the story its energy and heart.
The book is romantic, both in the love story sense and in Asia's professional ambitions -- a bit typical for the time, but nonetheless enjoyable in Pictures, 1918. It's a book that can be read on a number of levels and be enjoyed by a number of kinds of readers.
Reading Pictures, 1918, I was immediately brought back to elementary and middle school English and the kinds of books I read during that time. This, in part, is no doubt due to the year of publication (1998) when, as with other eras, children's books had a particular sort of style to them. You'll find it here: the popular historical fiction genre, told in straightforward prose with themes around family and plenty of symbolism for students to pick at if they so choose. (I opted not to analyze this one, but it's there, no doubt.)
Pictures, 1918 is populated with interesting and simply-drawn characters. Motivations are generally quite clear and the psychological lines of each are easy to distinguish and understand. It's a rather black and white world, necessitated by the brevity of the book, perhaps the author's perception of her audience, and the style of the time of publication (at least as far as I remember). And while some may find the one-dimensional-ness of the characters disinteresting, I found it worked really well in this case. The characters, the plot lines, and the language are steeped in simplicity to make a time that was anything but accessible while still acknowledging the complexity of this historical and personal moment for main character Asia.
One of the more interesting story lines involves a teen boy who seems psychologically damaged by the war, and while World War I is mentioned mostly in passing terms, its impact on the characters, their lives, and the story holds a heavy weight just below the surface and thrums, giving the story its energy and heart.
The book is romantic, both in the love story sense and in Asia's professional ambitions -- a bit typical for the time, but nonetheless enjoyable in Pictures, 1918. It's a book that can be read on a number of levels and be enjoyed by a number of kinds of readers.
January 3, 2009
I love Jeanette ingold!
June 28, 2011
Teen fiction -- skims the surface of lots of the craziness of 1918.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews