Isabel's Lesson

by Kathryn M. Pearce

Isabel Blossoms is an extremely imaginative twelve-year-old who attends The Lost School located in The Magical Woods in Folden Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. She is excited about helping Miss Post who is the young schoolteacher hired to replace Mr. Leonard. When Miss Post starts to teach, it is obvious to Isabel that she is doing everything wrong. Isabel tries to correct her mistakes but, much to her disappointment, Miss Post doesn't listen to Isabel. The ensuing excursions in The Magical Woods lead to Isabel's disgrace. However, even when everyone else thinks Isabel is a phony she doesn't give up. She is determined to solve the mystery of The Magical Woods. This book is part of the Minnesota Young Impressions Series and is the introduction to The Mystifying Missions of Isabel Blossoms Series which will be published soon.

122 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Kathryn Pearce has been doing extensive genealogical and historical research for families for the past fifteen years, preparing numerous research reports for individuals and indexing many historical records for familysearch.org.

What started out as an interest in family history has turned into a passion. Kathryn loves to make the genealogical data in the family histories come to life by providing the stories that can be attached to the names in the research reports.

As a child she grew up on the family farm near Henning, Minnesota. After high school, she attended the University of Minnesota where she obtained her master’s and specialist degrees. For more than thirty years she taught high school and college students and facilitated curriculum development in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. She currently lives in Cold Spring, Minnesota. However, she still enjoys staying at the family retreat in her home town.

Her many teaching and facilitating experiences taught her that book lovers appreciate exciting, interesting stories. Her biographical stories and her historical novels take the readers on many fascinating journeys.

She recently wrote several biographical stories that are featured in Heroes in the Family Fight for War Pensions. The book focuses on the ancestors of Amherst Douglas Wait and takes readers back to the 1600s when Amherst's ancestors helped settle Plymouth Village.

She also writes the middle grade Minnesota Young Impressions Series: Jake's Big Game, Minnie's Big Move, Val's Big Escape, Al's Big Haul, Emily's Big Scare and Isabel's Big Lesson. Each of these books is the result of research about families in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

All of the books are available from Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com as well as from other book retailers.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Isabel Blossom, The Magical Woods, and all the characters. It is a great story with a "Big Lesson" and I can't wait to read it with my grand-daughter. Thanks for a great book Ms. Pearce.

[Tracy Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book at no charge via the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway for the purpose of doing a review; therefore it has no monetary value to me. This review is my opinion(s) of the book, and is in no way intended to be the final hammer of judgment.

Warmly written Isabel’s Big Lesson is set in the early 20th century and in it Pearce tackles the importance of education for everyone as well as doing away with gender specific stereotypes that were the norm of that time frame. All this is done from the perspective of twelve year old Isabel. Isabel is the first to tell you that she has a “whopping imagination”, which is by no means an exaggeration. I would like to think that the people of Folden Township, Otter Tail County Minnesota have some inkling of just how grand Isabel’s imagination really is but I have a sneaking suspicion that they have no clue. Come and explore the Magical Woods with Isabel where you may spot a witch, or maybe a fire-breathing dragon, or even fight a bear after all there is no end to Isabel’s imagination.