People who lived through the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 never forgot the suffering, fires, and destruction it caused—nor the extraordinary lengths some San Franciscans went to to help one another. The survivors learned that disaster can bring people together even as the world seems to be in chaos. Then, as now, it is in such times of trouble that ordinary people like Clara often find the strength to take matters into their own hands and emerge as heroes.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In researching this story, I read many moving and fascinating accounts of the 1906 earthquake and fire. As I wrote Clara’s fictional adventure, I included historical details, events, and people I found especially interesting. For instance:
The notices Clara reads in Golden Gate Park were real ones posted by desperate family members in search of lost loved ones after the quake.
The jujubes that Edgar offers Clara came from Blum’s Candy Store, a real shop that was dynamited as part of the firebreak. Before the shop was destroyed, police officers really did offer children the chance to run in and take as many sweets as they could carry.
The singer Enrico Caruso really did sing songs from Carmen as the ferry carried him away from the burning city. General Funston and Fire Chief Sullivan were real people, too.
And although the Borden brothers are fictional, criminals did try get-rich-quick schemes to take advantage of people during the chaotic aftermath of the earthquake.
Today San Francisco is a shining city built on hills and edged by ocean and bay. It is home to nearly a million people who wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. But occasional earth movements are uncomfortable reminders of the region’s past—and motivation to build carefully on this unsettled edge of earth.
Readers who want to learn more about the 1906 earthquake and fire will enjoy reading If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake by Ellen Levine, Earthquake at Dawn by Kristiana Gregory, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned by William Bronson, and Disaster by Dan Curzman.
About the Author
Kathryn Reiss lives in a rambling nineteenth-century house in Northern California, where she is always hoping to discover a secret room or time portal to the past. She is the author of many award-winning novels of suspense for children and teens, among them Time Windows, Dreadful Sorry, Paint by Magic,PaperQuake, and Sweet Miss Honeywell’s Revenge. When not working on a new book, she teaches English and creative writing at Mills College and enjoys spending time with her husband, seven children, and many cats and dogs.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text Copyright © 2001, 2010 by Kathryn Reiss
Map Illustration by Paul Bachem
Line Art by Laszlo Kubinyi
Cover design by Amanda DeRosa
ISBN: 978-1-4976-4648-3
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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