Alms of Freedom (Read Write Ponder, #2)

Sometimes we learn things from the least expected person and just when we least expect it. When a woman visits a foreign country for the first time and heads out to the bazaar to purchase a gift for her host family, the host's son joins her to act as interpreter. The boy teaches her enough common phrases to allow her to communicate with the vendors, and not get swindled, but it isn't until she trips over an old crone selling wishes, that she learns the most valuable lesson of all. Alms of Freedom explores the notion of freedom and what it means to be free. It is the second workbook in the Read Write Ponder series, a collection of short stories constructed to engage readers, writers, and educators. Each novelette-sized book is comprised of a single short story, writing prompts to encourage creative writing, discussion questions for thoughtful analysis of characters and theme, and a letter from the author about her inspiration for the story and the techniques she used to write it.

Richelle grew up a latch-key kid in a small town in Michigan. The freedom of being parent-free gave her a myriad of ways to explore her environment. Her childhood home crouched on a small pond originally carved out of the Kalamazoo River to drive a grist mill built in the 1860s. Four distinct seasons in each of the 20 years spent in and on the pond and among its surrounding forests and marshes provided countless hours of playtime and has given her an appreciation for nature she could have never gotten from any classroom. That love of nature has snuck its way into nearly all of her writing.