Mortensen / Caldwell Children’s biography $17.95 978-1-68263-005-1 www.peachtree-online.com LORI MORTENSEN is the award-winning ISABELLA BIRD was like a wild vine author of more than stuck in a too-small pot. seventy children’s She needed more room. books, including If She had to get out. Wendell Had a Walrus, Away With Words She had to explore. Chicken Lily, and That was easier said than done in Mousequerade Ball. Her most daring nineteenth-century England. But somehow adventure? Driving from California to Isabella persisted, and with each journey, New York and back one summer with she breathed in new ways to see and her family and their pop-up trailer. The Daring Story of describe everything around her. Just like Isabella, her family soaked up “Henceforth, Question by question, word by word, each exciting detail—from the Grand Isabella bloomed. Canyon, to the Appalachian Mountains, Isabella Bird I must live my own life.” First, out in the English countryside. to fireworks in New York City on the Then, off to America and Canada. Fourth of July. Today, Lori lives in —Isabella Bird Away With Words Away And eventually, around the world, to Northern California with her family and Africa, Asia, Australia, and more. her cat Max, who is “purrfectly” content Always more—more places, more to stay exactly where he is. questions, more words—and all those www.lorimortensen.com experiences became books, in which she described the land she traveled, the people KRISTY CALDWELL she met, and the dangers she experienced, lives in New York and Written by to a fascinated audience who could only has illustrated several dream of such travels and adventures. books, including Lori Mortensen Flowers for Sarajevo. And finally, Isabella returned home to Her favorite way to Illustrated by England, where she became the first female travel is by boat. member of the Royal Geographic Society www.kristycaldwell.com Kristy Caldwell and was presented to Queen Victoria. But to wild-vine Isabella, the world was home. ISBN 978-1-68263-005-1 $17.95 Printed and manufactured in Malaysia Away with Words_jacket.indd 1 9/19/18 1:32 PM Away With Words_interior.indd 2-3 9/19/18 1:28 PM Away With Words The Daring Story of Isabella Bird Written by Lori Mortensen Illustrated by Kristy Caldwell Away With Words_interior.indd 4-1 9/19/18 1:28 PM To my daring family, and the exquisite books that regularly take me away with their words. —L. M. For Rachael, Kim, and Marshall —K. C. Isabella Bird was like a wild vine Published by Peachtree Publishers stuck in a too-small pot. 1700 Chattahoochee Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30318-2112 www.peachtree-online.com She needed more room. Text © 2019 by Lori Mortensen Illustrations © 2019 by Kristy Caldwell She had to get out. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in She had to explore. a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Edited by Kathy Landwehr Design and composition by Nicola Simmonds Carmack But petite Isabella, The illustrations were rendered digitally. pale Isabella, Printed in October 2018 by Tien Wah Press in Malaysia 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 proper Isabella First Edition ISBN 978-1-68263-005-1 was an unlikely candidate for adventure. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mortensen, Lori, 1955– author. | Caldwell, Kristy, illustrator. Title: Away with words : the daring story of Isabella Bird / written by Lori Mortensen ; illustrated by Kristy Caldwell. Description: Atlanta : Peachtree Publishers, [2019] Identifiers: LCCN 2017018780 | ISBN 9781682630051 Subjects: LCSH: Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy), 1831–1904—Juvenile literature. | Women travelers—Great Britain—Biography—Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC G246.B5 M67 2019 | DDC 910.4092 [B] — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018780 Away With Words_interior.indd 2-3 9/19/18 1:29 PM Born in 1831, Isabella had suffered from mysterious aches and pains ever since she was small. While her little sister Hennie scampered about their sturdy home nestled in the English countryside, Isabella rested. I very tired. Poor dear! What can be done? No one knew how to help her. Would Isabella simply wilt away? Away With Words_interior.indd 4-5 9/19/18 1:29 PM Her father set Isabella upon his horse. Together, What were the names of the animals? With each question asked, young Isabella they visited his parishioners in the wide open air of learned more. the English countryside. As they clippety-clopped Out in the wild, Isabella forgot about her aches hares…sheep…foxes…starlings… along, he drew her attention to every feature they and pains. She breathed in new ways to see and saw and questioned her about each one. describe everything around her. Question by question, word by word, Isabella What were the names of the crops? bloomed. Isabella’s family took her to a number of What were the names of flowers? doctors, but none of them could figure rye…wheat…barley… out what was wrong. roses…lilies…saxifrages… Then, one day a doctor made a suggestion. Maybe she needed fresh air. Away With Words_interior.indd 6-7 9/19/18 1:29 PM As she grew, Isabella heard letters from her Her head spun with the thrilling possibilities. uncles in India and news from missions in Africa. What faraway places would she explore? She marveled at their descriptions of exotic sights. What stunning details would fill her letters? giant elephants, colorful saris, curious monkeys, and twisted turbans pungent smells… curry, orchids, incense and smoke and soaring temperatures… 90…100…110! Away With Words_interior.indd 8-9 9/19/18 1:29 PM But as Isabella grew into a young lady, her wild- vine world closed around her, small and snug. Young ladies wore dresses. Young ladies didn’t go to school. Young ladies stayed home. Her life seemed over before it had even begun. Some days, Isabella felt so low that she couldn’t even stir from the couch. Slowly, Isabella wilted. Aches and pains returned. What could be done? Away With Words_interior.indd 10-11 9/19/18 1:30 PM In time, her doctor made Isabella’s heart quavered. It was At twenty-two, Isabella pulled another suggestion. Maybe a fortuitous twist of fate. up roots. She packed her proper another change of air—this Victorian clothes and a red leather time, a sea voyage. notebook, and climbed aboard a mail steamer bound for Nova Scotia. Isabella sailed away. Away from England. Away from family. And away from what a young Englishwoman could and couldn’t do. Away With Words_interior.indd 12-13 9/19/18 1:30 PM Out in the wide world, Isabella soaked up each feature, just as she had atop her father’s horse. She filled She steamed down the mighty Mississippi and mingled notebooks with stunning details. Nothing escaped her questioning gaze. with traders, trappers, leathered prairie men armed to In America, Isabella rode trains on narrow rims of metal through dense forests and rolling prairies. She saw… the teeth, and diggers on their way to find gold. nameless stations… leather pouches… fragrant lilies… strutting yellow euphorbia… wild turkeys silver spurs… lavender lupin… In this new land, it seemed as if everyone She dined on johnnycakes, thick-hided oxen… lived as free as the winds. squirrels, buffalo hump, and tea. For the first time, so did Isabella. heavy yokes… meddlesome steeds Away With Words_interior.indd 14-15 9/19/18 1:31 PM Isabella’s vibrant descriptions made readers feel as if they’d explored rough-and-tumble America too. Two months later, Isabella returned home. She captivated family and friends with her remarkable tales. Her father encouraged her to write a book. There was a small bed with A book? Evening succeeded noon, a dirty buffalo-skin upon it; Water is a beverage which I A book! and twilight to the blaze of a I took it up and swarms of never enjoyed in purity and summer day; the yellow sun living creatures fell out of it… perfection before I visited sank cloudless behind the America. waves of the rolling prairie… Armed with her notebook brimming with details of all she’d encountered—from foiling a pickpocket to withstanding the deafening roar of Niagara Falls—Isabella wrote The Englishwoman in America. It was published in 1856. Away With Words_interior.indd 16-17 9/19/18 1:31 PM Enthralled with her new life, Isabella made a second voyage to write a second book. Suddenly, exploring the world seemed wrong. When she returned a year later in 1858, she A proper woman stayed home. A proper woman hoped for a joyful reunion with her family. sacrificed and set her own needs aside. A proper But that very night, her father fell ill. woman concerned herself with family. Isabella reached a stunning conclusion. She had failed her duty and her father. At twenty-six, wild-vine Isabella made a hard decision—as hard as the narrow rims of metal she had described in her book. She would stop exploring. One month later, She would be the dutiful daughter she was he was dead. supposed to be. Away With Words_interior.indd 18-19 9/19/18 1:31 PM Isabella moved with her mother and sister to a tidy house across from a church. Mornings, she wrote. In time, Isabella’s backaches, headaches, and sleepless nights returned yet again.