Read an excerpt from Angel in the Battlefield

Read an excerpt from Little Lion

Series discussion guide to come!

Tour dates and locations to come!
For more information, please contact Bernadette.Cruz@us.penguingroup.com

When I was seven years old, I fell in love with a series published by Bobbs-Merrill called The Childhood of Famous Americans. In it, historical figures like Clara Barton, Nancy Hanks, Elias Howe, Patrick Henry, and dozens more came to life for me as children. As a little girl growing up in a small mill town in Rhode Island, these books and the people they described ignited my imagination and inspired me. If Amelia Earhart from Atchison, Kansas, could grow up to fly around the world, maybe I could accomplish something special, too. My own hometown didn’t have a library, so these stories became my lifeline to the world of books.

When I became a parent and my own son turned seven, I scoured bookstores for books like the ones I had fallen in love with so long ago. Although the series still existed, the stories of contemporary heroes and heroines, like Neil Armstrong and John F. Kennedy, were under its modern navy-blue covers. Gone were the tales of the men and women whose names were now disappearing from our culture. I fantasized about bringing the lives of those famous Americans back to modern children.

What a delight it has been to work with Francesco Sedita and his fabulous team to develop a contemporary version of the books that changed my life!

Through the eight books in The Treasure Chest series, readers will meet twins Maisie and Felix and learn the secrets and rules of time travel, where they will encounter some of these famous and forgotten people. In Book 1, Clara Barton, then Alexander Hamilton, Pearl Buck, Harry Houdini, and on and on.

I am thrilled to write The Treasure Chest, and to bring to life not only the childhoods of famous people from history, but also the characters of Maisie and Felix, who I hope you will fall in love with just as I have!

Yours,
Ann Hood