Stopping to Home [Paperback]

Lea Wait (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (2001)
• ASIN: B0015HQ6VY
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

I've been writing fiction (traditional mysteries for grownups, and historical fiction set in Maine for young people) since I left corporate America in 1998 and moved to Maine, a state I've always loved. Right now I'm working on a contemporary mystery for my young fans. I earned my B.A. at Chatham College and did graduate work at New York University. I've also owned an antique print business, MAH Antiques, since 1976. I adopted my 4 wonderful daughters when I was a single parent. They're grown now, and I have eight perfect grandchildren. (Aren't all grandchildren perfect?) In 2003 I married Bob Thomas, a man I've known and loved since 1968 .. sometimes life moves in slow but steady ways. Bob is not only a photographer and a partner in my antiques business, but is immensely supportive of my writing. (He even does all the errands and cooking so I have no excuses to leave my desk!) I'm very lucky to have achieved so many of my goals in life, and to have had fun doing it. My favorite quotation is "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved." William Jennings Bryan wrote that, but I think it defines my life. For more information about me, check my website, http://www.leawait.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful and heartwarming historical novel., September 17, 2001

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stopping to Home (Hardcover)

It's 1806 in the small village of Wiscasset, Maine, and eleven-year-old Abbie Chambers and her four-year-old brother, Seth, are on their own. Their mother has just died, and they haven't heard from their father, a sailor, in years. Abbie takes a position helping the young wife of Captain Chase, an ailing sea captain, on the condition that her brother be given a home there as well, so that he will not have to be sent to an orphanage. When the sea captain dies, the Widow Chase is left alone with no income and a baby on the way. Abbie and Seth are dependent on Widow Chase, but in a way, she is dependent on them, too. This was a heartwarming historical novel about a girl's struggle after her mother's death to keep her brother with her against all odds. I highly reccomend this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome Book, October 23, 2001

By 

Samantha Galvin (Arlington Heights, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stopping to Home (Hardcover)

This book was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it. I could really relate to the characters and the author really described the character! It was so well descripted that I felt like I had known these characters all my life! This book is a must to read and its a great book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful new writer to watch!, October 27, 2001

By 

palimpsest writer "women who persevere" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stopping to Home (Hardcover)

Lea Wait has written a sensitive and historically accurate story of life in early Wiscasset, Maine. Two children are suddenly orphans in the wake of a smallpox epidemic. Their father has been off at sea for far too long. Will a newly-widowed woman take them in if 11-year-old Abbie works for her, even if Abbie has a 5-year-old, mischievous brother? Will the children be able to stay there after the widow's baby is born? And what about their father, who was never too good a father or husband in the first place? Wait probes the issues of home and family with splendid results, and keeps the tension rising at the same time. Her writing is intelligent, and her sense of place is sure, with careful research obvious. (Of course, it helps that she lives across a bay from Wiscasset, in a historical family house) Wait has several other books in the offing, both Young Adult and Adult Mystery. We should all look carefully for her subsequent books. This is a writer to remember.