Interactive Historical Fiction e-books
By Crumbs, It’s Mine! by Patricia Beatty
Patricia Beatty specializes in spunky heroines, and in this high-spirited tale of the Arizona Territory in 1882 one of the most impressive makes her lively debut. Damaris Boyd is distinguished by her innate business sense, surprising in a fourteen-year-old girl. However, it turns out to be the salvation of the family when Mr. Boyd deserts them for the siren lure of the goldfields.
The emergency began when Papa lost all the Boyds’ money in a poker game. True to character, Damaris made her outrage known, and as a mollifying gesture the winner bequeathed to her his traveling tent-hotel called the Nomad. Willy-nilly the Boyds were plunged into the intricacies of the hotel business. Despite the hard work, the family prospered, but still the time came when Damaris realized that they could not continue without her father.
What happens when she finds him provides a thoroughly satisfying climax to a story studded with memorable characters and comical situations. Irrepressible Damaris carries all before her, and Patricia Beatty scores again.
“This has all the ‘verve’ I remember from the Patricia Beatty books I devoured in my childhood. Damaris Boyd, “a terror on two feet,” is deeded a traveling tent hotel by the gentleman who also won her father’s savings at poker, while they are on the train traveling to Arizona. All the men on the train are struck by gold fever and take off for the goldfields— and eventually Damaris and her family set up the hotel on a railroad line... Damaris is ‘spunky’ and not willing to be done out of her fair due, but she has judgement enough to let adults make decisions when necessary... and the cast of other characters are vivid. ”
