Recently I had the pleasure of doing a presentation on my new book, GOLDEN DELICIOUS: A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY at the Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton, WV. It was great to be back in my hometown where I also spent a day at St. Joseph the Worker Elementary School sharing my books with the students and doing a poetry workshop with the 8th Graders. The teachers went all out, wearing apple motif pins and vests, and the walls of the hallway were filled with delightful artwork done by students in response to my various books. There was even a delicious apple cake in the teacher's lounge. What a memorable school visit. Thank you St. Joe's!
The photo shows Linda Kucan, a professor in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education, and my best friend ever since 7th Grade. (In my book NO STAR NIGHTS Linda is the "best friend on the slag hill.) In the middle, is her niece Jordan Porter who along with her brother, Tyler, helped out tremendously with book sales, and that's me on the right.
 This is my newly-discovered, Australian cousin who has my same name. A month ago I received her delightful e-mail that said:
Hi my name is Anna Egan.
I am five.
I love your books.
I have just read golden Delicious.
thank you for writing such a great book.
I am in Australia.
I had to order this book because I was interested after google searching my name!
I found that I share my name with you.
My local library did not have your books so my mum helped me to order it through my favourite book shop.
I love reading books!
Just like me, Anna loves to read and write. She is in first grade and is the youngest member of a writer's circle that meets after school. The young writers sit and listen to all the students' writing and then they have afternoon tea with their teacher.
Anna and I hope that someday we will get to meet each other. Wouldn't that be wonderful!
Here is a lovely poem Anna wrote that was published in her WRITERS' CIRCLE MAGAZINE Edition 43.
Moon
By Anna Egan 1st Grade
Moon, you look so beautiful tonight.
So bright and shiny.
Do the stars put stardust on your cheek?
Moon, you look so tired tonight.
Go to sleep and have a rest
with a nice fluffy cloud blanket.
Every night I look at you from my window
And
Every night you look different.
Moon, you look so happy tonight.
So smiley and chatty.
Is it because you have your twinkle friend staying next to you
tonight?
Moon,
Thank you for giving me a light through the night and showing me
so many different faces every night.
Good night moon. Sweet dreams my friend.
Hope to see you tomorrow night.
The publisher of my book The Life of Saint Brigid (Appletree Press in Ireland) offers this information about the book:
An easy way for US & Canadian residents to order The Life of Saint Brigid is to contact me
The first of February, the first day of spring, is celebrated as Saint Brigid's feast day. But who was she and why is she so venerated in Ireland? Brigid lived in Ireland at the very beginning of Christianity and was a woman of unique vision, personality and spirit. She founded a monastery, became a champion of the poor and sick and was a peacemaker in a violent land. She also shared her name with one of the pre-Christian gods and so the legends of the goddess and the saint became infused.
The Life of St Brigid looks at the legends connected with the saint, prayers about her and explains the symbolism behind (and how to make) the St Brigid's cross. The fire of Celtic spirituality lit by St Brigid so many years ago continues to burn and readers will be fascinated by a woman who continues to inspire people today.
 Saint Brigid book cover A new website dedicated to the Saint and Celtic Goddess Brigid (also known as St. Brighid) gave a lovely description of my book The Life of Saint Brigid. St. Brigid is perhaps best known for the crosses that bear her name and are hung in Irish households to protect against fire.
To learn about my inspiration for writing The Life of Saint Brigid, click here.
They added The Life of Saint Brigid to a list of "Books that have inspired (the site)." The "mini-review" is as follows: "Beautifully produced little book with the Life of the Saint, Legends of the Goddess, Customs, Prayers and instructions to make Brigid's Cross."
The Life of St. Brigid
- Anna Egan Smucker
- Appletree Press 2007 - ISBN: 10: 0 86281 9997
76 pp Hardback
Note: The easiest way to order this book in the U.S. and Canada is to contact me.
 family in Canaan Valley Here I am with my brother and sister on the top of Bald Knob in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. We picked (and ate) wild blueberries as we hiked to the top. On the way up the trail we saw a fresh bear-paw print in the mud. Made me think of one of my favorite children's stories BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL by Robert McCloskey.
Also, my sister's name is Sal!
 view of Long Lake This picture is a view of Long Lake taken from my "writing place" on the screened-in porch of the Smucker cottage near Traverse City, Michigan. "The Cottage" has been in my husband's family for fifty years. At the end of beautiful Long Lake Peninsula, it's a great place to visit with our Smucker relatives.
Note: Long Lake is not far away from Lake Michigan, the setting for my book To Keep the South Manitou Light
This is about Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story, my newest book. This detail sheet was released by the publisher in fall of 2008.
Golden Delicious
A Cinderella Apple Story
Written by Anna Egan Smucker
Illustrated by Kathleen Kemly
Paul and Lloyd Stark, owners of the Stark Bro’s Nursery in Missouri, were looking for the perfect apple. It would be sweet and juicy. It would bring them fame and fortune, and would be crowned Queen of the Apple World! Box after box arrived from farmers who were sure they had grown the perfect apple, but none of the apples was quite right.
Meanwhile, many miles away in the hills of West Virginia, Anderson Mullins was inspecting his new farm. It had been a hot summer and everything was dry as dust. He certainly didn’t
expect to find a glossy, green-leaved tree loaded with shining yellow apples.
When the Stark brothers received Mullins’s yellow apples in the spring of 1914, they were astonished—the apples tasted so crisp and delicious! Was this the apple they had been looking for? Paul Stark set out on a thousand-mile journey to see this marvelous tree for himself.
Based on real events, this story of how the Golden Delicious apple came to be is perfect for discussions on nature and growing fruits and vegetables. Kathleen Kemly’s detailed, cheerful art creates the perfect setting for Anna Egan Smucker’s charming text. The author lives in West Virginia. The illustrator lives in Washington State.
Golden Delicious
A Cinderella Apple Story
ISBN 13: 978-0-8075-2987-4
$16.99 • Age Levels: 6-8 • Grades: 1-3
Pub. Date: September 2008
Pages: 32 • Size: 8 x 10
Illustrations: Full color
Hardcover Binding
I enjoyed giving this interview to The Reading Tub several years ago.
RT:No Star Nights(1989, 1994), your first book, was drawn from your experiences growing up in Weirton, WV. Publisher’s Weekly characterized it as an “oral history embellished with illustrations.” Several of your books, and much of your poetry, center on life in Appalachia. What do you hope readers learn about this unique place in reading your work?
Anna: I would hope readers learn just that – that Appalachia is a “unique” place. In the introduction to my book A History of West Virginia, I describe West Virginia, the only state entirely within Appalachia, as “a place whose hills and hollows are a part of its people, a place where family has always been important . . . where people are proud to call this beautiful, rugged land home.”
RT: Your most recent book, To Keep the South Manitou Light (2005), just like your first one, grew from personal experience, a family vacation. In doing your research about life in a lighthouse, what did you find to be most fascinating? Were you able to capture that in the story?
Anna: Before I began my research I had no idea how difficult a light-keeper’s life was. In addition to keeping the light burning throughout the night, the light-keeper put in a full day of work taking care of the lighthouse, the other buildings, and the grounds. The strict rules and requirements of the job are in a 100+ page book titled Instructions to Light-Keepers. That book was invaluable to me in reconstructing the daily routine of the real keeper of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse (in Lake Michigan). Accounts of the bravery of light-keepers can only leave one with a sense of awe and admiration for these dedicated men and women -- and their children. Hopefully the real details I incorporated in my fictional story will help the reader travel back to the time when lives depended on these keepers of the lights.
RT: ........How important is it for parents and teachers to bring a book to life with ancillary information?
Anna: Nothing exists in isolation. Ancillary information, be it literary, cultural, geographic, historical, scientific, etc., emphasizes this interrelationship enriching the reading experience, opening windows to the world—that is the joy of reading. Historical fiction lends itself especially well to this. In extending stories in this “across-the-curriculum” way, parents and teachers model the skills of life-long learners. I can think of no better way to guide our children along this path.
RT: As a teacher and librarian, there have likely been a number of moments over the years where you could visibly see “the spark” that energized or inspired a child to a love of reading. Is there any particularly poignant or memorable story? Have these events inspired or influenced you as a children’s author?
Anna: I treasure the stories librarians and teachers have told me of how some people have responded to my books: the librarian sharing my book No Star Nights with a group of low-income women who grew up in the shadow of Pittsburgh’s steel mills, who, until they heard my story, didn’t think their lives were worth writing about. The response of a care-giver who reads No Star Nights to the Alzheimer patients with whom she works, telling me how the story helps stimulate their memories. Most recently, the story of a second grader who heard her teacher read To Keep the South Manitou Light, and immediately went to the library and checked it out – her first “big” book read all by herself. I concur with the authors who say that in many ways we write for the child within ourselves – that child who remembers the excitement, adventure, stimulation, and solace that we found, and continue to find, in books.
RT: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Anna: I would just like to thank you and those who work with you for all the work you are doing to promote reading – connecting readers with good books.
Background: To Keep the South Manitou Light is a work of historical fiction set in 1871 on South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan and was published in 2005 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI
Here are some more excerpts from an interview I had for To Keep the South Manitou Light. Interviewer Cymbre Foster, Leelanau Enterprise, Feb. 2005. To read the first part of the article, click here.
How much historical info did you use in the story (To Keep the South Manitou Light)?
The story begins in early October 1871. The year had been very dry. Newspaper accounts reported fires burning in the forests around Lake Michigan all summer and into the fall. On the evening of October 8, 1871 two catastrophic fires ignited. One of these, the Great Chicago Fire, destroyed the city and claimed up to three hundred lives. The other fire, less well known but far more deadly, raged around Green Bay, Wisconsin, burning 1.25 million acres of forest and destroying the lumber town of Peshtigo. Possibly as many as two thousand people died. Smoke from the fires spread like a blanket all the way up Lake Michigan to the Straits of Mackinac. In my story, this was the reason for the Inspector's hurried visit warning the lightkeepers to be ready. There really was a lightkeeper who piled pots and pans on his lap to keep himself awake to ring the fog bell for the three days and nights the lake was covered with the smoke. This is recorded in Charles K. Hyde's The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes. The description of Patrick Malloy's rescue of the crew and passengers of the ship that ran aground on the shoals near the island is derived from this same book.
Instructions to Light-Keepers, a photoreproduction of the 1902 edition of Instructions to Light-Keepers and Masters of Light-House Vessels, was also an invaluable resource. When I could not find answers to my questions in books, Kimberly Mann, historical architect, and Bill Herd, National Park ranger at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore office in Empire, Michigan, were of great assistance.” In addition, I read every book on South Manitou Island that I could find and made several visits to the island to verify details about the lighthouse and to immerse myself in the setting. The collections of Leland’s public library and museum were also very helpful. Leland is mentioned frequently in the book in association with my main character and her family. They spend the winter living with Jessie’s grandparents in Leland where Jessie and her sister attend school.
Who is the intended audience (age/grade) for To Keep the South Manitou Light?
Ages 8 –12, however, I was very pleased to see a review by an adult reader on Amazon.com who called the book “Truly exciting and not just for young readers.”
Is there any additional information you’d like to tell your readers?
The cover of my book and the line drawing of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse were done by Louise Bass of Traverse City. Several years ago when I first started working on my story I bought a postcard and framed line-drawing of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse in a store in Leland’s Fishtown. I knew I wanted to use the drawing as an illustration in my book. I‘m delighted to say that not only is the drawing in the book, but the artist, Louise Bass, of Traverse City, also did the wonderful cover of the book. Louise and I both came to love South Manitou Island as a result of family camping trips there. Who knows, we might have been camping there at the same time, little realizing how our paths would someday cross!
Background: To Keep the South Manitou Light is a work of historical fiction set in 1871 on South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan and was published in 2005 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI.
I was interviewed several years ago by Cymbre Foster of the Leelanau Enterprise about my book To Keep the South Manitou Light. Here I include some excerpts from the interview.
What connection do you have to Michigan’s Leelanau County?
My husband’s family has owned a cottage on Long Lake near Interlochen since the 1950s. For the thirty years of our marriage we’ve spent part of every summer there, always looking forward to trips to Leelanau County. We swim at Otter Creek, climb the Sleeping Bear dunes, visit the shops in Leland, Northport, and Sutton’s Bay, and just enjoy the spectacular, unspoiled beauty of the county. It’s the first place we take our visitors and it’s always one of the highlights of their Michigan vacation.
What was your inspiration for the book?
“The characters in this story are fictional, and the life of South Manitou Island has been changed in several instances for the sake of the story, but the lighthouse is real. Several years ago, my family and I camped on South Manitou. On a sunny day in August we followed a National Park ranger up the winding steps of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse and out onto the lower balcony that circles the top of the lighthouse. The view from up so high was at the same time breathtakingly beautiful and very scary.
Stories often begin with a writer asking the question, "What if?" And so this story began with What if it were November, a stormy, sleety night in November in the 19th Century, with ice building up in layers on the windows of the lighthouse? What if I were only twelve years old, and afraid to be up at the top of the lighthouse even on a sunny summer day? What if something had happened to the lightkeeper and I was the only one who could climb the ladder to the upper balcony and scrape off the ice so the light could shine through to warn the ships? I asked these and many other questions, until Jessie Lafferty, her mother, Omie, and the other characters in my story came to life.
To read the second part of the interview, click here.
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