Books in the Series
Ruth's Christmas Surprise
Ruth can't resist peeking inside the mysterious mill next door. What she finds there opens her eyes to a world far from her own.
Book 1 in the Everyday Heritage Series. Includes historical notes about Salem Female Academy, turn-of-the-century train travel, and North Carolina's early textile mills.
01
It's 1894, and Ruth is leaving home for the first time to attend Salem Female Academy in North Carolina. When she stays with the wealthy Holt family for Christmas, curiosity gets the better of her, and she can't resist peeking inside the mysterious Glencoe Mills.
Ruth's discovery of the thundering machines, working children, and bolts of gorgeous Alamance plaid her own family could never afford opens her eyes to a world far beyond her own. But will she tell her family what she saw? And what Christmas surprise awaits her by the story's end?
02
Annie's Christmas Invitation
Annie's mother tells her to wear her best dress and wash extra carefully. Nothing could prepare her for the invitation waiting at America's grandest estate.
Book 2 in the Everyday Heritage Series. Includes historical notes about Biltmore House and Village and a traditional Victorian Christmas.
Step into the magic of Christmas at America's grandest estate through the eyes of nine-year-old Annie, whose parents work at the Biltmore Estate in 1900 Asheville, North Carolina.
When Annie's mother tells her to iron her best dress and wash extra carefully, Annie knows something exciting is about to happen, but nothing could prepare her for the invitation waiting at Biltmore. From the towering 35-foot Fraser fir in the Banquet Hall to the mysterious pickle ornament hidden among its branches, Annie finds herself swept into Christmas preparations she never imagined possible.
Based on the real traditions of George and Edith Vanderbilt, who personally selected gifts for every worker's child, this beautifully illustrated story captures the generosity and wonder of the season at one of America's most beloved estates.
03
Gabriel's Great Discovery
A shiny object gets swooped up right out of a pile of construction debris, and that's all it takes to spark the biggest mystery Forsyth Tech has ever seen.
Available as a picture book (Gabriel's Great Discovery) and a chapter book (The Key to Forsyth Tech).
Four-year-old Gabriel is exploring a pile of construction debris on the Forsyth Tech campus when something shiny catches his eye. Before he can even get a good look at it, a red-tailed hawk swoops down and carries his discovery straight to the top of a twenty-foot sculpture.
Now the whole campus is buzzing. Students, faculty, and staff all want to know the same thing Gabriel does: what did he find, and why does a hawk think it's worth guarding? As everyone works together to get it down, they uncover a mystery that has been waiting over sixty years to be solved, one that connects the college's past to its present in a way no one expected.
The Key to
Forsyth Tech
A shiny object gets swooped up right out of a pile of construction debris, and that's all it takes to spark the biggest mystery Forsyth Tech has ever seen.
Chapter book version of Gabriel's Great Discovery, part of the Everyday Heritage Series.
Includes historical notes connecting the story to Forsyth Tech's real history.
It starts with a glint of something shiny, buried in a pile of construction debris. Before Gabriel can identify it, a red-tailed hawk swoops down out of nowhere and snatches it away.
Within hours, the whole campus is searching for the treasure, dropping what they're doing to join the hunt, everyone bringing a different skill to a mystery none of them expected. What they find waiting for them is a promise made long ago and never forgotten, one that's about to connect the past and the present in a way no one saw coming.
By the time the mystery is solved, readers will discover that the greatest treasures aren't always the ones you can hold in your hand, and that some promises are worth keeping for a lifetime.
05
My Own RAMP
Challenges used to overwhelm Jordan. Then one word turned "I can't" into "I've got this."
Includes a note for parents, teachers, and counselors on using the RAMP framework at home or in the classroom, discussion questions, and a reproducible "Build Your Own RAMP" worksheet.
Jordan's brain never stops moving, bouncing from idea to idea like a pinball, which is great for finding something fun to do and not so great for sitting still with a page full of confusing directions.
When a flyer for a derby car race catches Jordan's eye, excitement turns to overwhelm the moment the rules show up as a wall of small print. That's when Mom introduces a simple four-part framework that turns any big, confusing task into something any child can actually tackle, one piece at a time.
Through building a race car and, later, facing a classroom writing assignment, Jordan discovers that the same framework that works for a derby car works just as well for anything that feels like "too many words." My Own RAMP is a warm, relatable story for any child who's ever frozen up in front of a big task, with a message that applies far beyond the racetrack.