The Ireentje Series
Ireentje Learns the Hard Way: An Immigrant Child’s Escapades in Canada was written for children between 5 and 12-years-old. It is available as a paperback and on Kindle.
Brave Face, the story of Ireentje’s mother, was published in November, 2022.
Unforgivable, the story of Ireentje’s father, is a work in progress.
‘Becoming an Iowan Girl: The Reluctant Immigrant: ‘ is a work-in-progress.
About ‘Ireentje Learns the hard way’
Have you ever chewed gum you found on the playground? Played in a ditch where wolves roam? Skated in the backyard? Sold driveway stones? Had a bird poop on your head? Fed chipmunks from your hand? Been mean? Told a whopper? Learned the hard way? Ireentje has. She is the eldest child of Dutch immigrants to Canada in the days before computers, cell phones, or child car seats, and her adventures are designed to be read as a novel by older children. The chapters are also suitable for use as gentle stand-alone stories for bedtime reading to those who are younger. Some stories have a moral; some do not. Some are humorous, and some are not so much. But, children always say, “Read me another chapter!”
Two years after my first grandchild was born, I began hearing requests to, “tell me a story.” Now, with eight grandchildren, the demands have become almost continuous. Stories about my childhood, the adventures of Ireentje, are their favorites, closely followed by tales of the exploits of my dog! When I read the first draft of “Ireentje” to one family of grandchildren, they built a fort, had me join them inside, gave me a pad of paper and a pen, and told me to write the next book, while they listened, of course. The other family’s children didn’t build a fort, but the response was similar. I was told, “Keep reading. I want to hear every word!” Greater commendation I could not dream of.
My Grammy is funny. She wrote this book mostly for her grandchildren, so she tells lots of stuff that I thought she wouldn’t say in public! This book is funny, exciting, and brave. And sometimes naughty.
Introduction
Once upon a time, a pretty long time ago, there was a little girl. Her name wasn’t Grammy. She only got that name much later when her babies had babies of their own.
When she was little, her name was Ireentje. The name is pronounced Ee [r]ain chuh. Don’t laugh! I know that’s kind of a silly sounding name.
It’s her name because her mommy and daddy came from a place far, far away: Scheveningen in the Netherlands. That town’s name sounds even funnier to us. That’s because, in the Netherlands, everybody speaks a different language: Dutch.
In fact, did you know that, when Ireentje was little, she also spoke Dutch? That is, until her mommy and daddy taught her English. And it’s a good thing they did since, if she didn’t speak English, I wouldn’t be able to tell you stories.
If you didn’t guess, grown-up Ireentje is the author of this book! So, if I didn’t speak English, then you would never know all about what Ireentje did when she was little, some of which is kind of naughty, and some of which is pretty silly, and some of which is very nice, and some of which is just interesting.
Chapters
Words
Ireentje Learns the Hard Way is written at a Flesch-Kincaid level of 4.3. There are 30 photographs, some illustrations and several recipes.
About the author.
Over the past twenty years, Caroline Crocker has worked as the CEO for a start-up company, the founder and president of a non-profit, a private tutor, a technical writer, a biology professor, a research scientist, a consultant and a communications expert. These positions have involved public speaking, teaching, all kinds of writing, learning new skills, interaction with people, some stress, some boredom, much travel, and much fun. You might say her work life has been interesting and varied.
But, what has always captured Caroline’s interest is people and their life stories. What she has enjoyed the most is hanging out with her grandchildren. And what they like best is when she tells them a story. And another one. And another one. And what she likes best is making those little people happy.
Caroline is married, has four grown children, eight grandchildren, and a dog. She loves to garden, sew, write, and go for long walks in the forest. But, especially, she likes to tell stories.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing Ireentje and am loving writing the other books in the series. My grandchildren and others drop everything to listen when I start to read the books. I hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Caroline Crocker
