'Shadows of War' tells of the first Memorial Day in Boalsburg

I grew up in Boalsburg, Pa., where it's a known fact - one that I learned as a student at Boalsburg-Panorama Elementary School -  that the tiny historic village is the birthplace of Memorial Day in America. Apparently, however, there are a bunch of other U.S. towns that make that claim to fame.

Setting the record straight in her novel "Shadows of War: Prelude to the First Memorial Day" (Crandall Publishing, 112 pp., 2008) is Boalsburg resident and author Janice Sweet McElhoe, mother of Jennifer McElhoe, a classmate of mine at State College Area High School.

I ran into both Janice and Jennifer McElhoe at BookFestPA in State College on July 14. They were promoting "Shadows of War" in a tent with a number of local authors up behind Schlow Centre Region Library.

"Shadows of War" is a historical novel intended for middle-school students, ages 9 to 12.

Photo of Janice McElhoe in the
BookFestPA tent July 14

"The novel enables young readers to visualize the impact the Civil War had on the small village of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. It provides them with an understanding of the magnitude of the events that eventually led to the first observance of Memorial Day," wrote Tabitha Berg in a Sept. 2008 article for eNewsChannels.

"Author Janice Sweet McElhoe, Ph.D., has written a story that young readers can relate to. In the novel, brave teens and classmates at the Boalsburg Academy trade their books for guns and march off to war, while the young women in the class are left behind."

Book summary (from Amazon.com):

The reader of "Shadows of War: Prelude to the First Memorial Day" will be able to visualize the impact of the Civil War on one small village in Pennsylvania and feel the magnitude of the events that eventually led to the first observance of Memorial Day. In the story, brave classmates at the Boalsburg Academy - 15, 16, 17 years old - trade their books for guns and march off to the Civil War, while the young women in the class are left behind. This tale is filled with loyalty and compassion for family, community, and country; qualities that continue to have implications for young people today.


The book is available for purchase at the Boalsburg Heritage Museum for $7 as well as on Amazon.com 



Download an audio prelude to book, courtesy of WPSU and NPR, here.
 
About the author (from the BookFestPA website):

JANICE McELHOE

Boalsburg native Janice Sweet McElhoe, author of "Shadows of War: Prelude to the First Memorial Day," has enjoyed a lifetime as an educator, first as a teacher in the public schools of Pennsylvania and later at Wilson College and Temple University, where her duties included teaching a course in children’s literature to future educators. As a child, growing up in Boalsburg, PA, McElhoe heard the poignant stories, of that small village, during the Civil War. It seemed inevitable that the educator from Boalsburg would find a way to share Emma and Sophie’s intriguing story of love, loyalty and compassion.  
McElhoe is also the author of “Sarah’s Story: A History of the Boalsburg Heritage Musuem” now in it’s second edition at the Boalsburg Heritage Museum.

Learn more about Boalsburg's Memorial Day history here.

About my visit to BookFest PA ...

Per the advice of Penn State Press Publicity Manager Danny Bellet (thanks Danny!), I took some time last Saturday, July 14, during my yearly trek to the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in my native State College, to visit BookFestPA. I left the crowded, heated downtown streets filled with thousands of Arts Fest visitors to duck into a cool church pew at State College Presbyterian Church and listen, along with several dozen attendees, to presentations by two best-selling authors with ties to Happy Valley.

Old postcard of State College Presbyterian

While BookFestPA is anchored at downtown State College's Schlow Centre Region Library, the speakers were scheduled at the lovely stone church about a block away.

State College Presbyterian Church was, incidentally, the site of a youth group I attended - and loved - during high school, called Fellowship In Senior High (FISH). Though they happened years and years ago, I still vividly recall the Wednesday night spaghetti dinners and meetings my FISH friends and I shared in the hall below the church. And of course the annual camping trip to Assateague Island. But I digress ...

My next few posts will describe BookFestPA speakers Sara Shepard, author of the "Pretty Little Liars" YA series, and Tawni O'Dell, author of (Oprah's Book Club pick) "Backroads" and "Coal Run," among other novels.

Schlow Centre Region Library

I also visited the 3rd Annual BookFestPA tent behind Schlow after O'Dell's presentation, and was floored to see some local State College authors set up, promoting and selling their own works. These included, to my surprise and delight, my 10th grade Advanced World History teacher Doc Wilkerson, talented musician and family friend Mark Ross, and Boalsburg historian Janice McElhoe. I will also be talking about their new books.

That's a lot to digest so I'm breaking this up into several posts ... please read on!