Clarion Review heading for Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the
Elegant Ride!
Click Here to go to the review online at Forewords Review
Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride
by Jean M. Flahive
Cover Art and Sketches by Amy J. Gagnon
US $14.95 paperback - 201 pages
ISBN: 978-0-578-54473-1
Library of Congress Card Control: 2019909872
Paperback books are available at these local bookstores in
Androscoggin Historical Society, Lewiston
Eliot Historical Society, Eliot
Gray Historical Society, Gray
Kennebec Historical Society, Augusta
Letterpress Books, Portland
Maine Historical Society Store, Portland
Morph Gallery & Emporium, Kennebunk
New Gloucester Historical Society, New Gloucester
Print: A Bookstore, Portland
Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Welshpool, NB, Canada
Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport
Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shops, All Locations
Thompson's Orchard, New Gloucester
Winthrop Maine Historical Society, Winthrop
Clarion Review 🌟🌟🌟🌟✩ Young Adult Fiction
Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride
Jean m. Flahive
Amy J. Gagnon, Illustrator
Philip W. Morse (Sep 15, 2019)
Softcover $14.95 (201pp)
978-0-578-54473-1
Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride infuse local color with an eventful coming-of-age story that's both expressive and nostalgic.
The advent of interurban trolley cars inspires a Maine farm girl to dream of a life beyond her rural town in Jean M. Flahive's inviting historical novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride.
Ninety-six-year-old Millie visits a museum restoration of the Narcissus, a trolley that impressed her when she was young. Through flashbacks, she recalls 1911, when she first noticed tracks for the trolley being laid. Amid her chores, curiosity about electricity and a prediction by a local fortune teller that Millie would one day meet a "notable" person build quiet anticipation.
In 1914, Millie rides her first trolley. Evocative descriptions of this exciting novelty show here seeing new vistas. When Millie meets Roosevelt, she gives him sweet peas; he is portrayed as a kind man. He's a minor if revered character within her story, though; the gift of flowers to him, which is based on a real event, is woven into a context of fictional Millie's enthusiasm.
Years pass at a brisk pace, tracking the interurban's development. Periodic returns to the museum delay the foreshadowed meeting and interrupt the warm immediacy of Millie's child's-eye-view. Millie's dream to leave home moves the plot better. The specifics are nebulous; Millie arrives at her plans through impulse, time, and experience.
Conversations with Millie's parents fill in the background with information on women's suffrage; Roosevelt's Maine connection and friendship with Bill Sewall, a guide; and the workings of the trolley. A focus on the Portland-Lewiston Interurban brings the sweep of modernization home and accents a lesser-known slice of Americana. Black and white archival photographs round out the history of Maine's interurbans.
During the First World War, details on politics and German U-boats stand apart from the main story; when the book turns to Maine's people and history, the facts are better integrated and Millie is less of a bystander. Millie's chance encounter with a Maine suffragist, Florence Whitehouse, reinforces how riding the interurbans plays a fateful role in shaping her worldview.
At fourteen, Millie joins a youth organization to sell Liberty Bonds on the interurbans, which combines her fascinations with travel and civic duty. Throughout, she is innocent, receptive, and determined - an aspirational figure. Her concerns place her in her era, yet she's timeless in her thirst for learning. In her teen years, the death of her brother and romantic feelings for a family friend, Sam, add gravity to the story, though they're sudden events. A later conversation pushes her to see that her childhood ideas can alter to include other people.
Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride infuse local color with an eventful coming-of-age story that's both expressive and nostalgic.
KAREN RIGBY (January 24, 2020)
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this...in accordance...with...the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.
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We continue the restoration work on the 1912, Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban.
Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts
Being more than a century old, the stately, "Elegant Ride," Narcissus, is a gem. This shimmering precious stone of Maine transportation history is brilliantly resplendent as it emanates so many elements of history, including; time, places, people, and events, that it was coupled to, that when just a smattering of its seemingly innumerable stories are shared, the contents captivates, fascinates, then generates, interest to learn more 🙋. The majestic Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Please consider joining the epic journey to complete the Narcissus Project by making a donation today!
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The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one in a series of captivating stories containing an abundance of incredible coalition of narratives.
Click Here: History-Related Posts - Narcissus and Portland-Lewiston Interurban
The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.
Click Here: Bookstores and Businesses promoting the Narcissus Project
Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding
the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for
the Middle Reader category for The Eric
Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to
award-winning Maine author,
Jean M. Flahive
