The Birthday Gift by Ellie Kraner
The Birthday Gift by Ellie Kraner
A popular pastor is sharing her grandmother’s mighty childhood lesson in a recently published book, “The Birthday Gift,” a tender, heart-filled story of “furry friend finders keepers.” “The Birthday Gift” is a childhood memory of Ellie Kraner and is published by PlaidSwede Publishing of Concord, N.H. Her story is of little Ellie and the surprise she finds for her mother’s birthday. It is illustrated by Lin Bourie.
“Ellie comes out of Grove Street School in a hurry on Friday afternoons. She is heading to the grocery store on the corner. Ellie gets paid on Thursday for helping her mother with the dishes each night. She buys a special treat at the store and is walking to her Nana’s house . . . And who does she meet along the way?”
Author Ellie Blaisdell Kraner is pastor of the Brookfield, Massachusetts, Congregational Church and a marriage and family therapist and spiritual director. Her passions include kids, dogs, reading, travel and gardening. She and her husband Dave raised four daughters and are the grandparents of six. This is her first published book.
Artist Lin Bourie helps support a ministry that impacts the lives of disenfranchised women and children. Her latest projects include murals, portraits, house portraits, jewelry, and producing prints and cards of original work. She has illustrated a children’s book about the Stari Most Bridge in Mostar Bosnia. She and her husband George have raised their three daughters in central Massachusetts.
A portion of the proceeds go to helping the Sugar Cane Kids go to school and eat at least one meal a day.
On the eastern savannahs of the Dominican Republic, sugar cane is harvested by men who live in some of the most primitive conditions in the Western Hemisphere. They barely earn enough to feed themselves, let alone their families. Yet their families are happy. Their children play and laugh just like our kids, but they go to bed hungry most nights. If their families can afford the school uniform, shoes, and a few pesos for a meal, these Sugar Cane Kids can attend school. When they are allowed to attend school, many excel at their studies and go on to graduate from the best universities in the Dominican Republic.
Boy, would I like to go “point-counterpoint” with Mr. Smith. I am the author of “Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the iroquois” (Westholme 2005).
The review was going fine until the last line. One has to remember the Six Nations of Iroquois were not some kind of eighteenth century Sierra Club.
Washington’s orders to Sullivan never said (as I recall) to “extirpate” the Iroquois. In fact, the primary mission was to “not merely overrun but destroy” their towns and cornfields.” this was done for three reasons.
One: After more than two years of brutal raids by pro-British Iroquois warriors against lightly defended American frontier communities, it was an effort to “chastise” or “scourge (punish) those of the Six Nations as were hostile to the United States.” The mission was also to “countenance (encourage) the friendly ones”! Nowhere did Washington order, nor at any time did Sullivan’s army engage in, the massacre or indiscriminate killing of Indian men, women and children.
Two: The raid was intended to give the pro-British Iroquois an opportunity to revert to neutrality and show their sincerity by befriending the U.S. and turning away from the Crown.
Three: Another mission, overlooked by many historians, much less historical novelists, was to force the British pay a heavy financial and logistical price for enlisting Indian allies to wage a war of terror against American frontier communities, by forcing them to support their Iroquois surrogates with an already strained supply system.
Glenn
Mr. Williams,
Thanks for your comments. I’ve ordered your book and look forward to reading it.
My novel is written from the Seneca point of view.
Some of my sources:
“Sullivan’s orders were to destroy totally the villages of the Iroquois …” Anthony F.C. Wallace, “The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca.”
Washington would “‘extirpate them from the Country.’ They were to call him ‘Town Destroyer’.” . . . (Sullivan) received formal instructions for his expedition from Washington: ‘The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements…”
Washington wrote to Lafayette on July 4, 1779 about the need to extirpate the Iroquois. From “Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected letters..” is this from Washington Sept. 30, 1779: “By my last advices from Genl. Sullivan of the 9th. Instt. I am led to conclude that ere this he has completed the entire destruction of the whole country of the Six Nations, excepting so much of it as is inhabited by the Oneidas who have always lived in amity with us.” (And dozens of Oneida braves served directly under Lafayette).
Yours,
James Herbert Smith
I thoroughly enjoyed Wah-say-lan … its an engaging read. I’m a native of the Finger Lakes region making it even better. And I learned a lot of the history of the Senecas and the Six Nations even after studying it in grade school so many decades ago.
My particular interest is in the Senecas perspective of the giving land which is mentioned often. I’m interested as I begin writing a sequel to my first novel, Twisted Vines, which takes place in the Finger Lake vineyards. In my second book I’m hoping to reflect on the Native American heritage of the vineyard lands.
My congratulations to James Herbert Smith on bringing the history of the Senecas to life, from their perspective.
Frankly, the book is a better read than I expected … and many contemporary writers could learn from James on how to write a sensuous scene. (But, what happened to that island in Canandaigua Lake?)
Many thanks, Art Maurer