Blunders of the Patriarch

About the Book

This is a fi ctional historical novel using specifi c events covering fi ve years in the lives of the fi ve Talon children, survivors of a family of eight, who went with Robert Cavalier de La Salle on his expedition to fi nd the mouth of the Mississippi River for colonization in the New World in 1684.

The geographical maps of the time caused the La Salle expedition to land in error at Matagorda Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the 200+ colonist who had left France and remained with La Salle, only ten children and fi ve adults were still alive by 1688.

About the Author

Betsy Francois is the well-known author and impression illustrator of the children’s pictures: There' s A Roadrunner in the Honeysuckle Bush, The Horse who Thinks she' s a Cat and two young people' s novels: The Blunders of the Patriarch and In Search of Kindness. Her latest book SURVIVING the LA SALLE EXPEDITION is told through Marie-Madeleine Talon' s point of view, the only surviving female. Betsy lives in Socorro, New Mexico. She began her writing career in 1991 taking a four-year correspondent course with The Institute of Children.