The Bonnet Book: Diary of an Orphan Train Hatmaker

Sent away on an orphan train at fourteen smart and lovely Blanche Spencer lands in St. Louis Missouri as a nursemaid wearing rags and sleeping in a pantry. To rise above her servitude she begins a self-education program. A trade booth at the 1904 Worlds Fair and a Cobden Illinois apprenticeship launch her into a hat-making career which she documents in a tiny diary The Bonnet Book.An early example of self-determination and girl power Blanche-now Bonnie-travels alone to the Wild West where shes presented with the chance of a lifetime and the possibility of love-both rife with challenges that test her drive purpose in life and sense of self.The Bonnet Book diary and other historical items in the novel are real-life touchstones in this gripping inspiring story based on the life of the authors grandmother.