Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes! See all the great books you might win here.
• The hunt BEGINS on 3/19 at noon Mountain with Stop #1 at LisaBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/22 at midnight Mountain)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
• Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the entry form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!
Hi. I’m Ann H. Gabhart and I’ve loved writing stories since I was a kid with an ink pen and a notebook. A pencil with an eraser might have been smarter. Whatever I’ve used to write ever since has let me turn out a variety of stories, but one thing ties them together. I love using Kentucky settings and Kentucky history in my books and why not? I’ve lived on a farm here in Kentucky all my life. I’ve written stories pulled from my own experiences as a small town country girl. I’ve written stories inspired by my mother’s growing up years during the Great Depression. I’ve explored the history of the Shakers in stories. Lately, I’ve been finding stories in the Kentucky Appalachian region. I found another one for A Chance for Kallie Mae.
Kallie Mae Bertram has two dreams – to learn to read and to have a chance for love with Quinn Spencer. She missed out on going to school as a child because at first, no school was near enough. Later a school finally opens nearby, but when her mother dies in childbirth, Kallie puts aside her own desires to care for the new baby and her little brother. Her dream of reading seems lost to her until a Moonlight School for adult learners gives her a chance to learn. But with her family and Quinn’s family locked in a bitter feud, will Kallie have that chance for love with Quinn?
I love to read. I’m guessing so do you. Kallie Mae knew she would too if only she had a chance to learn. Read on to see how one woman determined to make a difference and a moonlit night gave Kallie that chance.
In the early years of our nation before public schools were common, the written word was a mystery to many people, especially those in isolated regions like the Appalachian Mountains. Even as late as the early 1900s, illiteracy was common in these places. That was sadly true for many mountain people like Kallie Mae. Often, children didn’t have a school near enough for them to attend, or like Kallie Mae, family difficulties kept them from school.
Adult students at a Moonlight School
In Rowan County, Kentucky, one woman set out to make a difference. Cora Wilson Stewart, the superintendent of schools, determined to eliminate illiteracy in her county. At the time, many educators believed if a person didn’t learn to read as a child, they would not be able to learn. But when a mother, who had often brought letters from her daughter for Stewart to read for her, proudly revealed how she had taught herself to read, Stewart was inspired to open night schools for adults. The teachers of the county’s many one-room schools volunteered their time. They spread the word about the schools and opened them the night of the first full moon in September 1911. They hoped 100 or 150 people might show up. Instead, more than 1,500 adults came down out of the hills on that moonlit night to learn to read. Many of the schools were crowded with eager learners.
Since Stewart had set the start of the schools when the moon was full so people could find their way along the trails to the schoolhouses, they were called Moonlight Schools. Soon other places were asking Stewart to help them start Moonlight Schools. She went on to be an advocate for adult education in Kentucky and then throughout the United States. When World War I began, Stewart instigated a program to teach illiterate soldiers to read and write.
In A Chance for Kallie Mae, Kallie Mae is one of those with a dream of reading. That dream became a reality to many people because one woman, Cora Wilson Stewart, had a dream of her own–to eliminate illiteracy.
Here’s the Stop #17 Basics:
If you’re interested, you can order A Chance for Kallie Mae on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook, Baker Book House, or at your local bookstore!
Clue to Write Down: winter
Link to Stop #18, the Next Stop on the Loop: Nancy J. Farrier’s site!
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But wait before you go, I’m offering an additional prize here on my site. I’ll pick two winners. Each winner gets her/his choice of one of the books shown on the bookshelf below. To enter, leave a comment and sign up to get my e-newsletter (newsletter box on my home page or the green box, top right on my book pages) or follow me on BookBub. If you already do one or both, just note that you’re already a subscriber or BookBub follower in your comment. (USA only) The winners will be contacted and announced on March 22, 2026. Now go on and keep having fun on the Scavenger Hunt!!
