The main character in the book I’m working on is a woman who is forced to accept a job as a governess. She has no experience with children and is a rather repressed woman. I think of her as ‘The Librarian’--so it seemed natural for her to seek out a book on child rearing to help her do her job. I researched books on child rearing and found one written in 1831 by a woman named--wait for it--Mrs. Child. I expected it to be a completely outdated theory of child raising, you know the ‘children should be heard but not seen era’, but it was amazingly current. Lots of talk of teaching children kindness and manners through example. Well, there was that one little passage where she disapproves of locking children in closets and recommends tying them to a chair instead, but all in all, very modern!

I love to research and find that I will get lost in it and ignore my writing, so I decided my character had just one book available, instead of me trying to do a master’s thesis on child rearing in the 19th century.