Ramsey County History – Spring 2022: Grasshoppers in My Bed: New RCHS Children’s Book Coming in May – Kickoff Event at Gibbs Farm

Grasshoppers in My Bed
New RCHS Children’s Book Coming in May

Ramsey County Historical Society is pleased to announce the much-anticipated launch of a new children’s historical fiction book, Grasshoppers in My Bed: Lillie Belle Gibbs—Minnesota Farm Girl—1877 by author Terry Swanson and illustrator Peggy Stern. Written as a diary, the book highlights the everyday happenings of real-life girl Lillie Belle Gibbs and her experiences on the family farm in the late 1870s. Swanson, who worked as a site manager at Gibbs for ten years, mined the RCHS archives, which contain photographs, maps, programs, a personal Bible, Lillie’s dictionary, and school notebooks full of essays, spelling words, and penmanship assignments, to stitch together the story of Lillie’s life as an adventure-seeking eleven-year-old. Stern enhanced the story with over 200 colorful and imaginative hand-drawn illustrations.
PDF of Grasshoppers promo article