Books with author Betty Carran

Hedgehog: Beautiful Pictures & Interesting Facts Children Book About HedgehogsHedgehogs are mammals known to be native to mainland Britain. There are related species of hedgehogs found in Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. There are no hedgehogs native to North America and Australia. The ones found in New Zealand were only introduced to the area. In Britain, it is estimated that there are 1.5 million hedgehogs during pre-breeding seasons.

Written in 1959, this book has been read by (or read to) three generations of children. The author preserved, nurtured, and revised the manuscript of The Mystery of the Red-Brick House for 42 years. It traveled with the author from Reading, Pennsylvania to Grand Rapids, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dayton and Portsmouth, Ohio and back to Fort Wayne. It was finally published in 2001. This is a mystery for young adults (from 9 to 90). The story involves five siblings who move into a summer house that has been vacant for years. It is dissipated, looks spooky, even haunted. Strange things begin to happen, and a mystery begins to unfold. Muddy footprints on the porch, voices in the night, and a trap door to the attic that closes by itself, convince the five children something is definitely wrong. Are they in danger? they wonder as they try to solve the mystery of the red-brick house.

The protagonist, Heather Jean, accidentally desecrates the grave of Maggie Sue who died in 1803. Their spirits merge, taking Heather Jean back to the frontier days when Maggie Sue was twelve years old. It happens in the blink of an eye and one clang of Nana's dinner bell. Her spirit lives for months inside Maggie Sue and observes life on the frontier. When Maggie Sue is bitten by a copperhead and rescued by Shawnees, she is adopted and learns their ways. Eventually, she escapes and returns to her family, only to find them sick with the typhoid. She must return to her captives to learn how to heal her family and other squatters. Because she comes back and heals them, she is called a witch by the hill folks.This book is written for the young adult (teens). Five more books will follow, and record some of the major social movements of the 19th and 20th centuries that took place in the beautiful foothills of Southern Ohio.

When Heather Jean's spirit merges with the ghost of Morning Glory in 1997 and travels back to 1832, it causes the same conditions in Morning Glory that afflicted Maggie Sue (in Book One): nightmares, visions, reading without schooling, etc. Her mama becomes concerned, as does Maggie Sue's friend Fernleaf and younger sister Myrtie. They wonder what the connection is between Maggie Sue and Morning Glory.The legend that Maggie Sue was a witch is passed down by the settlers in Southern Ohio who remember the child who healed the squatters of typhoid, then died herself on Halloween. Even runaway slaves heard of Maggie Sue decades after her death and used her headstone as a guidepost as they follow the North Star to Canada. It is said her tombstone still stands to this day, with the word "witch" carved on the back. Her surviving family and friends wonder if Maggie Sue really was a witch, and did that mean her niece Morning Glory was one now?Morning Glory, with a Paleface papa and a Shawnee mama, struggles to find her true self as she helps her family hide runaway slaves while hiding from the militia themselves.