Karen Hesse says about writing this book, “While researching in the 1911 New York Times, I came across a series of articles written about Ida Lewis. Ida Lewis kept the Lime Rock Light burning off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, during and after the Civil War, taking over her father’s duties when he became too ill to serve. Ida Lewis never hesitated to go to sea in a storm, placing her own life in peril numerous times to rescue those who would otherwise have perished. She saved twenty-two people in her career as Lightkeeper. Yet she hated the attention her heroism brought. Ida Lewis saw herself as a Lightkeeper doing her job, nothing more, nothing less. Her story inspired me. To think of a female given such responsibility at that point in history! And the image of a light burning in the darkness of a Delaware night was so fitting when I looked at the darkness spreading over this country as the Civil War unfolded. Amelia Martin was created in Ida Lewis’s image, and in the image of the other female Lightkeepers who sacrificed and struggled to keep their Lights burning through some of this country’s darkest hours.”
Karen Hesse is one of the most distinguished children’s book authors in America today. Her acclaimed novels include Out of the Dust, winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal, the Scott O’Dell Award, and many other awards and honors; The Music of Dolphins, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Just Juice. She lives with her family in southern Vermont.