I may have found an author to replace Horatio Alger

A couple years back we went on a Horatio Alger's kick. Horatio wrote adventure stories in the late 1800s. Horatio Alger stories had the classic down on their luck lad who through luck and pluck would triumph in the end. The stories were moral and gave insight into life 150 years ago. We read over twenty of his books.

These books are hard to get. Many of them have been out of print for a century or more. We are fortunate that our library belongs to Link+: "a union catalog of contributed holdings from participating libraries in California and Nevada." (If you live in California or Nevada, check with your local library(s) to see if you have access to Link+.) Via Link+ we were able to get many of Horatio Alger's books. Eventually we read all that we could get hold of.

Deanna from Life In a Shoe has a possible replacement. In Ballantynes she writes:

"R.M Ballantyne was born in 1825 and was one of the most popular authors of the 19th century. He wrote stories of daring adventure, narrow escapes, and faith in God. He believed that the boys of his time were too sheltered and pampered and wimpy, so he wrote inspiring stories meant to show how much of a hard knock world it was. His stories are meant to highlight how dangerous and treacherous the world is/was and how important it is to trust in God to know best."

I'll use Link+ to check out the Ballantyne books.


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