Books > Star in the Storm

During World War II, my mom, a nurse, went to a small Newfoundland out port to take care of her terminally ill younger brother. It was an unusually hot summer and the fishing village had no electricity -- therefore there was no refrigeration. Her brother

begged for ice water -- a glass of water filled with clinking ice. A little girl happened to walk by his window and heard him crying for ice water. She

climbed into a boat and rowed out -- to an iceberg!

After chipping ice from the huge berg (a dangerous escapade on her part!) she brought a bucketful back to shore for my mother's brother. He was so grateful to her.

When I heard this true story years later, I knew

that some day her kind act should be told in a story, and I wanted to be the one to write it!

My mom also told me about a brave Newfoundland dog who carried a line out to a sinking ship during a wild storm. He saved over a hundred passengers.
When I became a writer, I wove these true events into my story, STAR IN THE STORM.

But it would be seventeen years before my book was accepted and published.

STAR IN THE STORM won the Henry Bergh ASPCA Award; the Disney Award; and several other awards.

This proved to me that "if you can dream it, you can achieve it!"