A Necklace of Virtues

“Why do we have so much when other people have so little?”

When my husband began spending his Sunday evenings serving food to homeless families, our daughter, Audrey, was 4 years old. As we told her about Daddy’s new job, she struggled to wrap her mind around the realities that so many people face every day. Hunger. Homelessness. Poverty.

One day when she was playing pretend, I asked her why she was filling boxes with plastic food.  She said she was “serving the poor” and that if I wanted to be a homeless person, she would give me something to eat. Later, she took her favorite pair of pants (the ones with rhinestones!) down to her father and asked him to give them to a kid “who didn’t have pants.”

I know we all strive to teach our children to share and be kind, but rarely do we have the vocabulary to explain our motivations behind the lessons.  When Audrey asked me the question at the top of this email, I stuttered and stammered and wished I could change the subject.  Whatever I told her that day, I replayed the scenario over and over again, wishing I could have had the perfect answer.

I’ll assure you that my own child can be as bratty and self-centered as any, but when we named her, we looked to history and found a woman we hoped she would someday emulate. Saint Audrey of Ely was a real English princess who gave up everything to devote her life to prayer and to serving others. When I was struggling with the “why” of giving, her story was where I looked.

A Necklace of Virtues is the result of my research and imagination.  I’ve created a story of historical fiction, grounded in the reality of Audrey’s life and targeted to little girls ages 3-8 who love playing princess.

Both paperback and ebook copies are available on Amazon and I’d be honored if you’d share this story with a little girl in your life.

Thank you so much for all your support as I work on creating more books like these for kids.

Calee

P.S. It makes a big difference when people write reviews.  It also makes my day. If you like this book, please leave a review here.

Thanks!

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