Showing results by publisher "Christmas Lake Press" in All Categories

Listeners will instantly love—and come to respect—fifteen-year-old Sophia Records as she confronts the challenges of keeping secrets for both the living and the dead, making decisions requiring wisdom beyond her years, and finding her way in a world that’s not quite ready for her. Set in the year leading up to the War of 1812, Sophia’s Journey is a captivating exploration of the complex issues of early nineteenth-century America, based on extensive historical research and told through the eyes of this sweet, sensitive, whip-smart young woman.

In the spring of 1904, the parents of twelve-year-old Jonathan Schwartz send him alone by train, from Streeter, North Dakota, to Ruff, Washington. There he is to stay with a distant cousin he's never met while searching for suitable farmland offered by the U.S. government at $1.25 an acre. Jonathan's parents would follow as soon as they had sold their own farm in Streeter, which had been devastated by storms.

The year was 1974, and Mike Krysiuk was a high school senior who had finally hit his stride. He loved baseball, being in a band with his buddies, and cruising around in his Chevy Chevelle blasting tunes on his 8-track. That spring Mike was finally popular-part of the "in" crowd-the cool jocks who cut classes, got away with it, and always dated the pretty girls. He even made the varsity baseball team but spent the season getting splinters on the bench.

The last survivor of a Polish town that once numbered 25,000, WWII resistance fighter Michael Rain (born Moshe Rainewicz) makes his way to the place of his dreams—America—determined to start a new life after the war. His skills as a mechanic land him a job with Ford Motor Company, and he marries a resilient woman who has overcome her own troubled past. Michael’s daughter, Samantha, has every opportunity her working-class father can provide, as well as his razor-sharp mind, steel nerve, and boundless optimism. But she needs it all to meet the demands of single motherhood.

Steven grew up rejected: Two men claimed to be his father, but neither proved to be a dad. Determined not to repeat the past, he become an unwavering presence in the lives of his own five children. His story will both shock and inspire.

In a thoughtful coda to this cautionary tale, the old China hand shares his thoughts about how to deal with the dragon today and in the future. Educating ourselves about the world's only other superpower is essential, he says. Both entertaining and eye-opening, Dancing with the Dragon is an excellent primer for doing just that.