Wendy Lawton and Moody publishers have reissued her Daughters of the Faith series with a new look!
Historical fiction/biography designed for school-aged children, Daughters of the Faith tells stories from nine childhoods.
All the girls portrayed did something significant for the Kingdom of God during their girlhoods.
“Faith is the key element,” Lawton explained. “All were girls who actually did what they did because of the relationship they had with Jesus.”
They may not all have talked about a “relationship with Jesus,” she added. “That’s our 21st-century eyes. But their lives revolved around honoring God.”
Why did Lawton write fictionalized biographies of girls?
“My whole life, I’ve been interested in girls, dolls, stories,” she said.
A noted and honored doll designer before she wrote the Daughters of the Faith series, Lawton created with a specific story in mind.
Each doll I created had a story behind it. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, was the first one.”
“When I spoke at stores about my dolls, I always retold the story behind the doll. I looked at customs, the Legend of the Poinsettia for example.
I’d design that doll and when I spoke, I’d tell all those stories of wonderful people that no one remembered anymore.”
Her tagline is “telling stories in porcelain and painting pictures in words.”
As to the importance of writing her books for girls, Lawton’s own daughter learned to love history through reading fiction.
“It’s important for children to connect to people who feel like them, that connects them to history. I hope they’ll love the girls [in this series] because they were girls like them, and that will interest them in history.”
The girls in Daughters of the Faith books lived between 1607 in England, to the 1950s in the United States.
They did not necessarily do anything special, or marry famous men.
But they left a mark on history while they were still young.
As Lawton explained:
“History tends to record the stories of men. Sometimes we come across the historical account of a woman.
Once in a while, we even read of boys’ exploits, but the hardest to find is the young girl’s story. Growing up, I craved stories of real girls.”
Welcome to Wendy Lawton.com
Some are familiar–Pochahontas, for example– others not so well-known.
But they all lived lives worth knowing.
Deliberate research and attention to detail
While Lawton’s stories are historical fiction, she spent weeks learning and studying both the girls’ lives and the times in which they lived. She personally interviewed one of her subjects, Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman.
“While writing Shadow of his Hand, I spent an entire week at a hotel with Anita. She told me stories and we both cried. I got her story right from her mouth.”
While writing Courage to Run about Harriet Tubman, Lawton listened to all the slave testimonies gathered in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
“I wanted to hear what they had to say, the rhythm, and cadence of their language. I listened to a lot of the music of the time, the chants, and the “Ring Shout” form of worship.”
Lawton particularly worried about writing Almost Home, the story of Mayflower traveler Mary Chilton.
The Mayflower Society pays close attention to everything written about the 102 people who sailed from England in 1620. “They know how every pea or oat was packed on the ship, including who bunked where,” Lawton explained. “I had to get it all right.”
Lawton’s historian author brother, James Smith, took on the genealogy task and did original research for the novel, as well.
Lawton constructed a lengthy chart from her brother’s genealogy work to ensure accuracy while writing. She used the chart when discussing the story in elementary classrooms.
Ultimately, the Mayflower Society endorsed the book. “That made me feel very proud,” Lawton said.
Mixing Fiction, Faith, and History
Lawton’s care could be seen in the way she mixed fiction and history.
“There’s always a note in the back of the books explaining what is true and what is imagination. I tell the reader who really lived or who was a made-up friend, for example.”
Readers can find that information in the epilogue or the notes, along with several suggestions for further reading. Many of the books provide a glossary for historic terms pertinent to each girl.
When Lawton described the tattoo marks on Olive Oatman’s face, for example, she used the correct Native American terminology: ‘ki-e-chook.” Her clear explanation and assurance that, “It did not hurt as much as Olive supposed,” helps younger readers understand what happened.
Lawton also carefully explained the Native American tribe’s name in Ransom’s Mark.
The Captive Princess tells a version of the Pocahontas story and Christianity’s influence on her actions.
The Tinker’s Daughter describes how Pilgrim’s Progress author John Bunyan’s daughter cared for him during his time in prison.
Freedom’s Pen, based on the life of freed slave poet Phillis Wheatley, opens in The Gambia, Africa about 1761.
The Hallelujah Lass is about Eliza Shirley and her solo journey as a 16-year-old to the United States where she founded the Salvation Army. I’d never heard this story before!
Little Mission on the Clearwater, describes the life of Eliza Spalding, the first non-Native American girl to grow up in Oregon Territory.
Which girl would Lawton like to meet first?
“I long to meet Harriet Tubman when I get to heaven. I love what she had to say:
“When someone congratulated her on her bravery, she would always answer,
‘Don’t, I tell you, Missus, ‘twan’t me, ’twas de Lord! Jes’ so long as He wanted to use me, He would take keer of me, an’ when He didn’t want me no longer, I was ready to go; I always tole Him, I’m gwin to hole stiddy on to you, an’ you’ve got to see me trou.”
Courage to Run, p 142
Wendy Lawton laughed. “You can’t take Jesus out of her story. ‘Twas the Lord.'”
Lawton emphasized more than once, these girls didn’t necessarily grow up to be big leaders. She wants her readers to know, you don’t have to be a grown-up to do significant things.
Amen.
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