All Bessie wants is to go hiking with her father and brothers. But it's 1896 and girls don't get to hike. They can't vote either, which Bessie discovers when Susan B. Anthony comes to town to help lead the campaign for women's suffrage. Inspired by the great woman, Bessie becomes involved in the movement and quickly learns that hiking is only one of the many things that women and girls aren't allowed to do. But small efforts can result in small changes - and sometimes even big ones.

Marching with Aunt Susan is based on the family papers of the real Bessie Keith Pond, a ten-year-old girl who lived in California during the suffrage campaign (and who later in life, did get to go hiking with her father).

Claire's books transport readers to the North Country so you can ruffle the thick fur of a sled dog or spend a day with classmates in an outpost school. Put yourself in the cleats of a teenage baseball player when he discovers a secret about his mom and her connection to the Vietnam War in the novel Free Radical Or, try on the sandals of daring women who inhabit the desert lands that are home to the foremothers and forefathers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in Daughters of the Desert.

Claire is available for author visits and writing workshops at schools, libraries and conferences.
Read more on her Presentations page. Read what those who've had her visit their school have to say on the Schedule page.

The Storyteller's Inkpot

Claire and other award winning authors, all professors in Hamline University's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program, share their thoughts on current books, writing principles they follow, tips on getting your book published, ways of connecting with young readers and exercises to generate new material.

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Please click on any of the book images to the left to read more about each of them.
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