Books with author Irene Morck

"No matter how well immigrants adapt to life in a new country, they still treasure the traditions of their native homes. For many pioneer settlers in North America, Christmas was a time to honor their heritage, both spiritual and cultural. During those long and often bleak winters, Christmas brought families and their communities together. The festivities gave pioneers a chance, for even a little while, to forget their hardships and concentrate on beauty and meaning." -- from the author's introduction. In this delightful Christmas collection, author Irene Morck has taken a number of stories from her bestseller, Five Pennies: A Prairie Boy's Story (Fifth House,1999), and adapted them for children of all ages. Based on her father's childhood years in a Danish pioneer community, Apples and Angel Ladders follows a family through their most memorable Christmases. Accompanied by Muriel Wood's beautifully realized paintings, this collection vividly recreates the hardships and simple joys of homesteading life and the Christmas season that offered the kind of riches that never could be bought. This is a collection that will be shared by grandparents, parents and their children, and become a keepsake to be handed down and cherished for years to come. Includes color plates with woodcuts in black and white throughout, special binding with a ribbon marker.

When Ambrose is forced to sell his horse because of an injury, he must find a new animal that can handle the rigors of the mountains while packing for his uncleís trail-riding outfit. To save an old lady's beloved companion from the meat-buyers, Ambrose buys a horse who would be better off in retirement than climbing the treacherous trails of the Rocky Mountains. The horse, Society Girl, almost dies on the trail, and Ambrose realizes she will have to go back to the meat-auction. When Ryan, a misbehaving ten-year-old, takes the horse and disappears into the teeth of a dangerous mountain storm, Ambrose and Janice are forced to work together to find him. Will the young boy and the elderly horse survive a vicious hailstorm? Will Society Girl prove that she has a future? Will Ambrose be able to save the old horse from certain death?

When Ambrose is forced to sell his horse because of an injury, he must find a new animal that can handle the rigors of the mountains while packing for his uncleís trail-riding outfit. To save an old lady's beloved companion from the meat-buyers, Ambrose buys a horse who would be better off in retirement than climbing the treacherous trails of the Rocky Mountains. The horse, Society Girl, almost dies on the trail, and Ambrose realizes she will have to go back to the meat-auction. When Ryan, a misbehaving ten-year-old, takes the horse and disappears into the teeth of a dangerous mountain storm, Ambrose and Janice are forced to work together to find him. Will the young boy and the elderly horse survive a vicious hailstorm? Will Society Girl prove that she has a future? Will Ambrose be able to save the old horse from certain death?

A gripping and touching story of how the precarious relationship between two brothers is tested when they both fall for a very special girl. Greg and Michael are brothers, but they don't get along. Ever. Now Greg is going to miss the hottest party of the year, and it's all Michael's fault. Instead of having fun with his friends, Greg finds himself, saddle sore and grimy, searching all over the high Rockies for a stray horse with Michael, their father and Holly - a girl with thick bones and thick glasses. Definitely not the kind of girl that usually catches his eye . . .