Whitewater Shining Crown

About the Book

Doug Andrews, a Native American, is the first member of his town to go to university.  However, as the book opens, he and his wife Ellen, are about to graduate after a tedious stint of summer school.  While they are there, they have been contacted by a young doctor and his teacher wife who wish to come to their town of Larmar and live there.  Doug and Ellen are thrilled, because they wish to start a school for the children of Larmar, which, they hope will keep these children in school longer.

Just after they graduate, both with honors, the doctor, his wife and little boy come to live in Larmar.  However, as soon as they have moved into their house, the doctor’s wife has her second child, a girl.  By this time, Doug and Ellen know they are expectant parents, too and Ellen feels very uncomfortable, since she is carrying twins.  The boys are born on the first day of their Christmas vacation, giving the community their next potential chief.  About six months later, Doug and Ellen find a white baby abandoned near their home and adopt her.

Rounding out the families, when the twins are four years old, the doctor’s children find a little Indian girl also abandoned in the woods near their house.  She will not tell them where she is from or who her parents are, only that she cannot tell them anything.  No one comes forward, so the doctor and his wife adopt her.

Life goes on, Doug and Ellen change their settlement from a village of tents and total poverty to a thriving, industrious town, with the school growing and another village joining them under Doug and Ellen’s loving direction.

The book ends as four of the six children are graduating from high school.  Life hasn’t always been easy, but it has been interesting and full of adventure.

About the Author

Bette Pratt spent most of her childhood in New England and Brooklyn. Having difficulty making friends and being an only child, Bette spent lots of time telling herself stories. After she and her husband raised two children and their son left for college, she went back to those stories and launched her writing career.