What's Closed For Martin Luther King Jr.

Additional Auditions For ``oklahoma!'' Will

By JEFF DEAN Times Leader Correspondent
 Sunday, January 14, 2001 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1G 





There's nothing Moscow author Susan Campbell Bartoletti enjoys more than a
good story - unless it's sharing a good story with her daughter. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Which, as it turns out, makes Bartoletti the perfect choice to launch a new
mother/daughter book club organized by the Times Leader Newspaper in Education
Department and the Tudor Book Shop and Cafe in Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ``I think the whole idea of a mother/daughter book club sounds wonderful,''
said Bartoletti, who will read and sign copies of her book, ``A Coal Miner's
Bride'' on Wednesday night at the Wyoming Seminary Lower School in Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``There's nothing more pleasurable for me than sharing a book I love. My
daughter and I often share reading.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``A Coal Miner's Bride'' is actually part of a large series of books
published by Scholastic Incorporated, called the ``Dear America Series,''
which uses a fictional diary format to tell the story of girls and young women
throughout history. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Set in the 1890s, Bartoletti's book tells the story of Anetka Kaminski, a
young women who starts her diary while living in Poland. To her dismay, Anetka
soon receives a letter from her coal miner father informing her that he has
arranged her marriage in the United States. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Unable to resist, Anetka finds herself in Lattimer, Pa., married to a man
named Stanley Gawrych who wants a young bride from the old country to cook his
meals and take care of his children. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In so doing, Anetka becomes embroiled in the historical 1897 clash between
sheriff's deputies and striking coal miners, which would soon come to be known
as the Lattimer Massacre. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I've found that this series really gets a lot of parents reading along
with their daughters,'' said Bartoletti. ``And this book in particular, for
me, seems to have found an adult niche.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 An eighth-grade English teacher for 18 years, Bartoletti, 42, said she made
the decision to write full-time just three years ago. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``When I was offered my sixth contract,'' she said, ``I realized the time
had come to make a decision. It was hard because I absolutely love to teach,
but I was also getting up to write at 4 a.m., then going off to face
eighth-graders all day. You can only do that so long.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Amazing, in light of her relatively short career, she already has six books
to her credit, with two more due out in the fall. The first is a picture book
called ``A Christmas Promise,'' which tells the story of a father and his
young daughter trying to survive as traveling hoboes during the Great
Depression. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The second, she said, is a nonfiction book tentatively titled ``The Hungry
Years: The Story of the Great Irish Famine.'' She explained that, like ``A
Coal Miner's Daughter,'' both will be written to appeal to younger readers
while offering enough interest for their parents. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Bartoletti also said that immersing herself in the research for the book
really gave her an appreciation for the plight of women in Pennsylvania at the
turn of the century. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``When I think of strong women, I think of not what they are, but what they
do,'' she said. ``I think of the decisions they make, the circumstances they
face, and how they provide models for their daughters and other young women.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 WHAT: Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of ``A Coal Miner's Bride.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 WHERE: Wyoming Seminary Lower School library, Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ADMISSION: Free. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 INFO: Tudor Book Shop and Cafe, 288-9697. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

`a Coal Miner's Bride' Author To Launch Book Club