Polly Sumner

Richard C. Wiggin is a historian, former Executive Director of The Bostonian Society (now Revolutionary Spaces), and former Captain and Historian of the Lincoln Minute Men. His award-winning book, Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783 (Lincoln Historical Society, 2013), chronicles the American Revolution through the experiences of 256 soldiers from a single New England farming community. As a living historian and battlefield volunteer at Minute Man National Historical Park, Wiggin appears regularly in school classrooms and enjoys speaking before civic and historical groups. He has organized and conducted scores of public ceremonies and written audio tours for Minute Man National Historical Park and Boston’s Freedom Trail. His articles have appeared in Alaska Magazine, The Boston Globe, Civil War Courier, The Lincoln Review, and American Ancestors.

Keith Favazza has created countless illustrations for many of the world’s leading publishing houses. In creating the drawings for this book, he walked where the early American Patriots walked, studied eighteenth-century life, and climbed on board a replica of a Boston Tea Party ship.  Minutes away from Griffin’s Wharf, where Polly arrived, is another wharf where Keith’s grandfather captained his fishing vessel in Boston’s North End.  Keith lives in historic Plymouth, a vibrant coastal town where many of his public art pieces can be found on the waterfront.  He has a passion for gardening, cooking, and of course, drawing.

Robert J. Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk University. His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, a biography of American naval hero Stephen Decatur, and short books on the history of Boston, the American Revolution, and an edition of The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Two of his classes, “Before 1776: Life in Colonial America,” and “The Age of Benjamin Franklin” are available from The Great Courses. As chair of Revolution 250, a consortium of organizations planning Revolutionary commemorations in Massachusetts, he hosts its weekly podcast featuring conversations on the Revolution with historians and interpreters. He is President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, a scholarly organization focused on early American history, and a life-trustee of the USS Constitution Museum.

Vivian Kirkfield is a writer for children—reader forever. Her bucket list contains many more words—but she’s already checked off skydiving, walking under the ocean, and circumnavigating the globe. When she isn’t looking for ways to fall from the sky or sink under the water, she can be found writing books in the picturesque town of Bedford, New Hampshire. A retired kindergarten teacher with a masters in Early Childhood Education, Kirkfield inspires budding writers during classroom visits and shares insights with aspiring authors at conferences and on her blog where she hosts the #50PreciousWords International Writing Contest and the #50PreciousWordsforKids Challenge. Her nonfiction narratives, including Sweet Dreams, Sarah: From Slavery to Inventor; Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe; and From Here to There: Inventions That Changed the Way the World Moves, bring history alive for young readers and have garnered starred reviews and accolades including the Silver Eureka, Social Studies Notable Trade Book, and NSTA Best STEM Book K-12. Visit her at viviankirkfield.com.