STITCHING THE RESISTANCE
I graduated from the Hamline University in July 2019, with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Before graduate school, I worked as a registered nurse for twenty years, then changed to medical device marketing. I authored clinical articles for nursing and physician journals, chapters for specialty medical textbooks, and created medical device marketing materials for healthcare professionals. STITCHING THE RESISTANCE is my first work of historical fiction.
Abstract
STITCHING THE RESISTANCE is the story of twelve-year-old Matti L’Engel and her fourteen-year-old brother, Bruno, who live with their grandmother, across from the Dinant train station. The siblings learned Morse code from their recently deceased grandfather, the railroad telegraph operator. They become involved in the Belgian Resistance after they learn their grandmother provides information to the local partisans and Allies, by knitting code into scarves. Gerhard, the fifteen-year-old son of a collaborator, is their antagonist. The point of view switches between Matti and Bruno so the reader understands each of their challenges, internal struggles, and their realizations about life as they face the dangers of resisting the German invasion during World War II. The book also includes author notes, suggested books about other young people involved in the Resistance, and instructions to knit a scarf with a coded name embedded into it.