Month: March 2019

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“Fire and Forgiveness” Chosen for Together We Can Read Program in Columbia, SC

Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman is the 2019 City of Columbia and Richland County School District One “Together We Can Read” selection! All 2,000 third-graders in that school district received a copy of the book to take home to help build their personal libraries. And on March 26, more than 100 guest readers took time out of their busy schedules to read the book to Richland One third-grade students as part of the 11th annual Together We Can Read literacy initiative. Video and photos below courtesy Richland County School District One, Richland PTO and the City of Columbia. And click here to see a great second video from Richland One’s FaceBook page!

At Satchel Ford Elementary
City of Columbia Councilman reads to students
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Beautiful Thank You Letters from 2nd Graders

Thank you letters from St. Peter’s School 2nd graders

These beautiful thank you letters from 2nd graders at St. Peter’s School in Columbia, SC, made my visit worthwhile. During my author’s visit with illustrator Monica Wyrick, I read from our new book FIRE AND FORGIVENESS. Then students put roses on the grave of Mother Baptista, who protected her students during the Civil War burning of Columbia. We also discussed how to be a peacemaker.

See more of the letters on my “School Visits” page.

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Students Pay Homage to Heroic Nun

Headstone of Mother Baptista Lynch in St. Peter’s Cemetery, Columbia, SC

On February 21, students from St. Peter’s Catholic School in Columbia, SC, laid flowers at the headstone of Mother Baptista Lynch in St. Peter’s Cemetery adjacent to the school.

The Mother Superior of an Ursuline Convent School protected 200 young girls who were forced to flee the boarding school during the Civil War burning of Columbia. Mother Baptista and her students hid in St. Peter’s Cemetery overnight. The next morning, she saved the Hampton-Preston from being burned by the Union Army.

Mother Baptista’s story is told in a new children’s book Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman. The author, Martha Dunsky, read portions of the book to 1st through 6th graders inside St. Peter’s Church, before they laid flowers at the nun’s headstone.

At a presentation inside the school, Dunsky and the students discussed how to be a peacemaker, which is the book’s message.  Joining Dunsky was Monica Wyrick, the book’s illustrator and art teacher at St. Peter’s School.