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Heather Vogel Frederick Books In Order

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Publication Order of Patience Goodspeed Books

The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Education of Patience Goodspeed (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Spy Mice Books

The Black Paw (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
For Your Paws Only (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
Goldwhiskers (2007)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of The Mother-Daughter Book Club Books

The Mother-Daughter Book Club (2007)Description / Buy at Amazon
Much Ado About Anne (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dear Pen Pal (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Pies & Prejudice (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Home for the Holidays (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
Wish You Were Eyre (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
Mother-Daughter Book Camp (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Pumpkin Falls Mystery Books

Publication Order of Heather Vogel Frederick Standalone Novels

A Little Women Christmas (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Heather Vogel Frederick Picture Books

Calamity Wayne at the O.K. Corral (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
Babyberry Pie (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Hide-and-Squeak (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon

Heather Vogel Frederick is an American author of historical fiction, fantasy, and contemporary fiction for children. She was born into a family that loved books and was a voracious reader right from the time she could read. Vogel Frederick’s father was a principal and elementary school teacher that read to her and her two younger sisters every night before they went to bed. She was fortunate to be born in a family of talented storytellers. Vogel would hide behind sofas and chairs, eavesdropping on her aunts, grandmother, and mother telling stories. Of particular interest to her were the stories about growing up in rural Nova Scotia, that she begged her grandmother to tell over and over again. She knew she wanted to be a writer by the time she was six and started writing short stories two years later, including a whole novel that she wrote during summer camp. When Frederick was eleven, Her family moved to England and took up residence in a 400-year-old cottage near the Charnwood Forest. The old house provided the perfect backdrop to her storytelling mind, and she spent most of her days at her bedroom’s windowsill writing about doomed teenage queen, knights in shining armor, and castles. She would continue to write stories as a hobby through middle school and high school, but it was in college that she knew she wanted to write children’s books. During her college years majoring in German and English Literature, she met an instructor passionate in children’s books that reintroduced her to the genre and got her writing again.

Returning to the United States, Heather Vogel Frederick started out as a journalist working for The Science Christian Monitor. She wrote and edited feature stories for the publication, and eventually rose to the position of Children’s Book Review Editor. After the birth of her two sons, she decided to go the freelance way and became a writer and editor for several magazines and newspapers such as Publishers Weekly, Child, Family Life, and The New York Times. She started out writing fantasy fiction but getting nowhere, decided to shift to fantasy and contemporary fiction for children. Historical fiction, fantasy, and contemporary fiction all have special connections to the authors life as she spent a lot of time watching spy fiction TV, had a misspent youth, and her historical fiction is set in her hometown of Concord. Called the Charlotte Bronte of modern times, she has written over 12 novels and has two picture books. After more than two decades, living in the Pacific Northwest Frederick has once again moved to New England with her husband. Their children have long since moved out of the family home, and the two now have to do with the dog Billie for company. Nonetheless, she lives a full life with friends and family they love, gratifying work and a new home to explore and come to know. The new house has a lot of resemblance to her old English cottage that she lived in during her childhood. It is full of crannies and cozy nooks that gets her in the mood for writing some fantastical stories.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club series of novels was an idea she got from her editor, who thought that it would be fun to write a book about mother daughter book clubs given that such clubs were so popular all over the country. Set in Concord her hometown, a lot of the characters and scenarios are taken right out of Vogel Frederick’s childhood and adolescence. Given that the author has three daughters, it was easy to take the idea and run with it, mining her childhood and that of her children vigorously. She also drew a lot of inspiration from the mother daughter connections she had from having a strong mother. The novels are about four girls, Jess, Emma, Cassidy, and Megan who are very similar to the characters of the March sisters of the Little Women novel that is the club’s reader. The girls undergo tremendous development throughout the novel particularly Megan who turns from the classic mean prankster to a maturing woman, who faces up to the consequences of her actions and takes responsibility for them. The novels also display the role of parents in their children’s lives, particularly the mother daughter relationship.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club gets off to a rocky start as the mothers pick Little Women as the clubs reader, while their daughters are reluctant to join the club. Jess and Emma are best of friends while Megan is the classic mean girl who friends with an equally mean Becca. Cassidy is the oddball being the new girl in school. While this is one of the most unlikely of combinations, the quality time the mothers get to spend with their daughters turns out to be a source of friendship, community, and security for all. Even as the mothers deal with their own issues, the girls are facing up to the challenges of middle school and adolescence that include comical pranks and innocent crushes. Conflicts between the parents, the girls, and the Fab Four group of popular girls is common. Emma is embarrassed when Becca reads her poem aloud to the boy she has a crush on, Cassidy sneaks out to go try out for hockey despite her mother forbidding her from doing so, Jess is taunted for living on a farm, and Megan has to make a hard choice between the book club and her Fab Four friends. That being said the novels also deal with issues that are more serious. Cassidy misses her father who died in a gruesome accident, and Jess misses her mom who left to become an actor in New York. In the end, the book club is there to offer support, teaching the mothers and the girls about the value of communication, compassion, and friendship.

In Much Ado About Anne the second novel of the Mother-Daughter Book Club, the girls are in seventh grade where they face even more challenges as they read Anne of the Green Gables. The mothers believe that it is time that Cassidy, Jess, Emma, and Megan build bridges. Mrs. Chadwick and her daughter Becca Chadwick have thus been invited to the book club, which raises the tensions, given Becca’s insufferable reputation. Jess is still faced with the same issues, as she believes her mother will leave for New York yet again. Meanwhile Cassidy’s mother is dating again and Cassidy hates the boyfriend with a passion. Megan is still stuck between the book club and her friend Becca who has been a bad influence so far, which is making the book club sessions uncomfortable affairs. With Becca getting involved in a cell phone prank, Megan may have to choose sides. But when the club finds they have been selected to make a special appearance on Hello Boston, they hatch a plan to get back at the obnoxious Becca on live TV. But given that they are not naturals at this like Becca is, will their plan work? Will the club make it through seventh grade? Will Jess’s mother abandon her again? And will Cassidy ever come to accept her mother’s boyfriend?

Book Series In Order » Authors » Heather Vogel Frederick

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