Author--Patricia Beatty

When I was 12, my family went and visited my Aunt who lives in Southern California. This aunt is my mom's sister and she is a fun delightful lady and I feel lucky to be related to her. One of my aunt's passions is good children/youth literature and growing up, she often sent me books by authors she liked. One author was named Patricia Beatty and this author happened to live in Riverside, CA close to my aunt. They didn't know each other but for my visit to California, my aunt called Ms. Beatty and asked if she could autograph a few of her books for me. Ms. Beatty not only agreed to do that but invited both of us to come to her house and meet with her.

She lived in a very old imposing house in Riverside and she was very gracious to let us visit with her for quite a while. Two things stand out from the visit. One, she gave us both something to drink--milk for me and a very strong alcohol-filled drink to my aunt. My aunt doesn't drink anything with alcohol and when Ms. Beatty wasn't looking she poured it into a plant! The other memory was that she took us up to a tower in her home where she kept copies of all of her books and she signed and gave me one of her books that was out of print--Oh the Red Rose Tree. I love books and it was such a treasure to have one that was out of print from the author's own collection.

Anyway, recently, I was thinking about that experience and looked up on-line to see if any of her books are still available. I was thrilled to see that several of them are available and through many used book web-sites most of her out-of-print books can be purchased. She writes historical fiction and it is geared to children around the age of 10. I am eager to start introducing her books to my children.