FANNY ALLEN- Green Mountain Rebel

The daughter of the Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen is the captivating heroine of this book for the early teens. Fanny, along with her father, was convinced there was no God. But after his death her mother remarried a Dr. Penniman, who was charmed with the 9-year old girl, opened his large library to her eager mind, and gave her a far better education than most of her contemporaries. The gay social life her family expected her to enjoy held small appeal, and she persuaded them to send her to a convent school in Montreal. There she became a Catholic, and broke with all family tradition to become a nun of the Hospital Sisters of St. Joseph in the Hotel Dieu in Montreal. Suspense is built up from the time Fanny is saved from a reptilian creature by a kindly apparition that cautions her to run to safety. Years later she recognizes her saviour as St. Joseph. Miss Betz is an adept writer who makes the historical background, the customs and family life of Colonial America come graphically alive.