Counting on Grace Author Visit at the Library

On Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 7:00 PM Elizabeth Winthrop will present a program with slides called THE SEARCH FOR ADDIE: SPINNING VERMONT HISTORY INTO FICTION. This program is open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.

In this talk about her creative process, Elizabeth Winthrop will tell the story behind her new novel, COUNTING ON GRACE, (Random House, 2006) set in North Pownal, Vermont. Inspired by the haunting Lewis Hine photograph of a 12-year-old mill girl in 1910, Winthrop created Grace Forcier, a French Canadian spinner who is proud to work by her mother's side as a doffer. But when Hine arrives at the mill to document the horrors of child labor, Grace becomes his secret ally, a decision that brings both devastating repercussions as well as the possibility of a different life for this one child.

In a presentation with slides that runs like a historical detective thriller, Winthrop will introduce us to Grace, while, at the same time, showing us in scenes from the life of a small Vermont town, the riveting story of her painstaking and finally rewarding search for Addie, the real child in Hine's photograph.

COUNTING ON GRACE is the VERMONT READS selection (A Vermont Humanities Council program) and the Jane Addams Peace Prize Honor Book for a novel of excellent literary quality that highlights social justice issues. In the spring of 2007, the novel was read in weekly installments every Sunday night on Vermont Public Radio. For more information call the children's room at 223-4665.