Jean Flahive
On this site I want to introduce you to my books, stories that capture a piece of Maine history. In my blog will be a listing of book signing events. I love to visit classrooms, historical societies, libraries, reader’s and writer’s groups, so let me hear from you if you are interested in a talk about the books or how I blend historical realities into works of fiction.
And to those who have read my works, do let me hear from you with your thoughts or any questions you may have about the true events I write about.
What’s important to me, more than anything, is you, the reader. Thank you for visiting the site!
Photo by Kevin Bennett / Courtesy of Islandport Press
My books
Introducing my award-winning book
Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride
Millie Thayer is a headstrong farmer's daughter who chases her dreams in a way you would expect a little girl nicknamed "Spitfire" would--running full tilt and with her eyes on the stars. Dreaming of leaving farm life, working in the city, and fighting for women's right to vote, Millie imagines flying away on a magic carpet. One day, that flying carpet shows up in the form of an electric trolley that cuts across her farm. A fortune-teller predicts that Millie's path will cross that of someone famous. Suddenly she finds herself caught up in events that shake the nation, Maine, and her family. Despairing that her dreams may be shattered, Millie learns, in an unexpected way, that dreams can be shared.
Cover art by Amy J. Gagnon
Young Tobias is on a quest with his father, David Moses Bridges, the Tribe’s master canoe maker. Together they go deep into the Maine woods to find the perfect birch and to gather spruce roots, cedar and spruce gum to build a canoe in the ‘old ways.’ In this magical tale, David weaves Native American storytelling into the ancient art and spirituality of canoe making, including the heart-rending, mythological legend of the partridge, the first canoe maker.
Written by Jean Flahive & Donald Soctomah
Illustrated by Mari Dieumegard
Billy Laird, from Berwick, mustered in the 17th Maine to serve with his friends in the Union Army. Mentally challenged, Billy is ill-prepared for the training and fighting that follows, but he gets by with the help of his friends.
In this compelling sequel to Billy Boy, The Sunday Soldier of the 17th Maine, Elijah befriends one of Maine’s remarkable historical figures, Oren Cheney, a Freewill Baptist and founder of Bates College. Cheney’s actions to resolve Elijah’s dilemma mirror this man’s historically accurate role in post Civil War Maine.
Sometimes hope comes in unexpected places.
Several days a week Eben York rows his dory six miles from Chebeague Island, his Maine island home, toward Portland harbor, hauling in cod as he goes. On this day, however, before he reaches the mainland, a porpoise tangles his lines, dense fog rolls in, and an accident leads to a broken oar. Lonely, tired, and adrift, Eben is almost ready to give in to the embrace of the sea, when rescue comes in an unexpected form.
Written by Jean Flahive
Illustrated by Mari Dieumegard
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who would become the thirty-second president of the United States, joyfully spent his boyhood summers on Campobello Island. It was there that he met Tomah Joseph, a Passamaquoddy elder and former chief who made his living as a guide, birchbark canoe builder, and basketmaker.
The Galloping Horses of Willowbrook is a children's whimsical that tells the heartwarming story of a young Ivory Fenderson, who never got to ride on his father's 1894 Armitage Herschell carosel during the years it travelled from fair to fair throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts because 'his feet did not reach the stirrups."