Dorothea Jensen
Dorothea Jensen, born in Boston, Massachusetts, grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois. She majored in English Literature at Carleton College, then taught high school English. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil, she earned an MA in Secondary Education at the University of New Mexico.
In 1989, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich published Dorothea’s novel for young readers about the American Revolution, The Riddle of Penncroft Farm. Named an International Reading Association Teachers' Choices Selection soon after publication, it is read in classrooms throughout the U.S. In 2014, it won a first place Purple Dragonfly Award in the historical fiction category.
Her newest novel, A Buss from Lafayette, is set in 1825 in the New Hampshire town where Dorothea lives now. It will be released April 22, 2016 by BQB Publishing.
Besides historical fiction, Dorothea has written a series of award-winning illustrated modern Christmas stories in verse. These feature Santa’s Izzy Elves (Tizzy, Blizzy, Dizzy, Frizzy, Quizzy, Fizzy, Bizzy and Whizzy) who are all extremely savvy in 21st century technology.
In addition to being a writer, Dorothea is an experienced actress/singer who played many Gilbert and Sullivan battle axe contralto and ingénue mezzo roles. She also performed in a baroque opera company. (She nearly always lost the hero to the soprano.)
Works
A Buss from Lafayette
Fourteen-year-old Clara Hargraves lives on a farm in Hopkinton, a small New Hampshire town, during the early 19th century. She has a couple of big problems. First of all, she has a stepmother, Priscilla, who used to be her spinster schoolteacher aunt. Clara resents that her late mother’s older sister has not only married her father but is about to have a baby. To make matters worse, “Prissy Priscilla” keeps trying to make the rambunctious, clever, and witty Clara act like a proper young lady. Secondly, Clara has red hair, making her a target for teasing by a handsome older boy, Dickon Weeks, and by her pretty seventeen-year-old Dread Cousin Hetty. Clara, however, has a secret plan she hopes will change this.
During the last week of June, 1825, Clara’s town is abuzz because the famous General Lafayette is about to visit their state during his farewell tour of America. In those eventful seven days, Clara learns a lot about her family, Hetty, Dickon, herself, and about Lafayette. She comes to understand the huge and vital role the young French aristocrat played in America’s Revolutionary War and to see that her problems might not be quite so terrible after all.
Website
Location
Contoocook, NH
Author Contact
Category
Fiction & Literature, Poetry, Children