My current project is a middle-grade historical novel set in seventeenth-century Japan.
Tomoe and the Secret Island won FIRST PLACE in the 2019 Ink & Insights Writing Contest, Apprentice Division.
Tomoe /toe-MOE-eh/ Hasegawa is an eleven-year-old girl in seventeenth-century Japan who aspires to be courageous like the samurai. She feels most alive when swimming at the beach or playing outdoors with her friends Sakuma and Kino. After Christianity is banned and persecutions intensify, Tomoe’s Catholic community flees to a remote island. They are pursued by the regional deputy who wishes to protect the nation from the corruption of foreign ideas. Along the way, Tomoe’s many attempts at bravery backfire and place her loved ones in great peril. Once on Kuroshima Island, she grieves the death of her father and the betrayal of a close friend. She eventually befriends the island’s mysterious hermit who teaches her to spearfish and models a courage different from the show-no-mercy credo of the samurai. When Tomoe unexpectedly comes face-to-face with the regional deputy, she must choose which version of courage she will use to protect her people.
The novel was also named Judges’ Favorite in the category of Middle Grade Historical Fiction.
The following are the books I co-authored with my fellow travel writers at Beginning Press. My maiden name—Laura Kraemer—appears on each of the covers.
January 1997
