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Leonore's Suite
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Leonore’s Suite is an unexpected coming-of-age story.
Coming Soon!
"Let's Show Them How Democracy Works! "
The Democratic Tradition Alive in a WW2 Civilian POW Camp
Democracy and prison don't go together. But the largest body of American civilians ever imprisoned by a foreign power didn't know. They deftly employed the tools of their democratic heritage to survive the darkest of times: overcrowding, disease, cruelty, hunger, and eventual starvation. Timed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American Independence, Mary Beth Klee's new narrative history explores how internees commitment to self-governance, civic participation, education, innovation and entrepreneurship helped them survive Santo Tomas.
"Let's Show Them How Democracy Works! "
The Democratic Tradition Alive in a WW2 Civilian POW Camp
Democracy and prison don't go together. But the largest body of American civilians ever imprisoned by a foreign power didn't know. They deftly employed the tools of their democratic heritage to survive the darkest of times: overcrowding, disease, cruelty, hunger, and eventual starvation. Timed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American Independence, Mary Beth Klee's new narrative history explores how internees commitment to self-governance, civic participation, education, innovation and entrepreneurship helped them survive Santo Tomas.
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Drawing on family archives, primary sources, and survivor accounts. Proposal currently with agents--timed for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
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Leonore’s Suite is an unexpected coming-of-age story.
"I went off to prison in a Cadillac."
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With those words, thirteen-and-a-half-year-old Lee Iserson leads readers on an unexpected journey through thirty-seven months of captivity under the Japanese. This coming-of-age story shines a light on a little known saga of World War II: the imprisonment of more than 4000 Allied civilians--mostly American, largely families--in Manila's Santo Tomas Internment Camp. Lee, her best friend Lulu, and their teen buddies journeyed to adulthood under dramatically adverse circumstances, enduring overcrowding, disease, cruelty, and starvation. It wasn't your average concentration camp.
Internees organized a school, learned how to de-weevil rice, smuggled goods into camp, and rationed precious toilet paper squares, while figuring out which guards they could trust and how to stave off hunger. By 1945, having lost her freedom, her father, and a third of her body weight, Lee wonders: Where is God in the darkness? Did music have the power to heal? |
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Available in:
Hardcover Softcover E-Book 
Liberation of Santo Tomas, February 1945; Lee is circled in white.
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