M.P. Barker--Archivist/Historian/Author

Okay, M.P., it's time for us, as your classmates, to come clean about something.

Ahem. Ahem.

We're in awe of you.

You are an archivist and historian. And a published author. Wow.

So, tell us about your cast of characters ... from your incredibly unique perspective ...

M.P. Barker: First of all, thank you. Second, one of the great things about working in an archives is that I have lots and lots of old photographs and book illustrations to browse through if I'm trying to get an idea for a character.

And I'm happy to show you some of the characters from A Difficult Boy. By the way, all these images are from the archives at the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum and are used with permission.


Mr. Lyman is the meany that my two main characters, Ethan and Daniel, work for.



And here’s the lovely Mrs. Lyman.



This handsome Civil War veteran was my model for Silas, the Lymans’ oldest son.



Although not quite as plump as I imagine Lizzie, the Lyman’s dairymaid, to be, this gal has just the right twinkle in her eye:


The hardest characters to find were my two boys. I still haven’t found a Daniel that matches the one in my head (no offense to Marc Tauss, the artist who created the striking cover image for the book). As for Ethan, I found a couple of old photos that were sort of close, but not exactly right.

Then one day I was out with a couple of friends. (These, by the way, were the friends who made me write 5 pages a day until the book was finished, so they knew the story better than just about anyone else.)

We were at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA (an amazing museum—more great art in one small town than you’d ever imagine—and Williamstown is also the home of the famous summer theater where Christopher Reeve got his start).

This painting, Thomas Gainsborough’s "Elizabeth and Thomas Linley" just stopped me dead in my tracks. “Do you know who that is?” I said to my friends, who looked at me like “Well, duh, read the label.” When I told them it was Ethan, they just went “Whoa—yeah, that’s him!” Check out this link.

Want an idea of what kind of house the Lymans live in?

Here are links to a couple of historic houses that are similar:

The Seguine Mansion, Staten Island, NY

The Maxfield Inn, Naples, NY

The Alexander House, Springfield, MA (shown here being moved—this one is just around the corner from the museum where I work)


So, friends out there in the blogosphere, can you see why we're in awe of M.P.?

Put your hands together for ... M.P. Barker

Please welcome M.P. Barker, debut young adult author of A Difficult Boy.


M.P. is a very interesting and unique member of the Class of 2k8. And we wish you all got a chance to hang around her the way we do. But since you don't, we're doing this interview to help you get to know her. 

Best of all, M.P. is letting us give away her biggest secret.

Here goes ...

M.P. Barker is a TIME TRAVELER!

M.P. Barker: Actually, I'm an archivist and historian. Which, I guess, is sort of the same thing.

2k8: But you worked in nineteenth-century rural New England, right?

M.P. Barker: I was a costumed historical interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village. I milked cows, mucked out barns and found inspiration for my historical novel, A Difficult Boy.

2k8: That mucking out of barns sounds ewwww. But the rest sounds very cool. Are you still time traveling?

M.P. Barker: Well, I work now as an archivist at the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. This gives me the opportunity to read other people's diaries and letters and snoop through their photo albums.

2k8: Love it! Old-time gossip! What else do you do?

M.P. Barker: I'm also a freelance historical consultant. I've written exhibit text, scripts for historical dramatizations, nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, fundraising materials, and planning studies.

Thanks, M.P. And, now, onto A Difficult Boy. First off, here's the wonderful cover.

cover art credit: Marc Tauss

And here's the flap copy:

It's 1839. Nine-year-old Ethan doesn't want to be an indentured servant. But his family has no other way to pay off their debt, so Ethan must work for Mr. Lyman, a wealthy shopkeeper in their Massachusetts town. At first, Ethan tries to make friends with the Lymans’ other indentured servant, Daniel, a moody Irish teenager. But Daniel, as everyone says, is a difficult boy, and wants nothing to do with him. Then Ethan is shocked to see Mr. Lyman beat Daniel. Soon, Ethan, too, is suffering Mr. Lyman’s blows. Self-preservation finally drives the two boys together, and they begin to form a friendship, but when the boys discover a dark secret about the patron, their lives may be changed forever.



2k8: How in the world did you ever come up with this fantastic idea for a book?

M.P. Barker: I was cataloguing some documents in the archives and came across a 275-year-old bill that an indentured servant’s master had sent to the boy’s mother, charging her for the cost of finding and bringing back her runaway son. That got me thinking: Why did the boy run away? What would happen if his mother couldn’t pay the bill? What kind of crummy cheapskate was that master?

photo credit: Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, from their archives

2k8: And how did the bill become your novel?

M.P. Barker: Well, the document was still on my mind when I went to my weekly writing group. So I began doing a few character sketches. Since I didn’t know as much about the 1770s as I ought to, I transferred the time to the 1830s, which I did know about from working at Sturbridge Village. Once the characters started growing, they began to take on their own lives, as characters have a way of doing, and I sort of lost control. My first draft was 700 pages! Luckily for readers, the published version is now just shy of 300 pages with two discontented indentured servants (one of them Irish), one cruel master with a closet full of skeletons, one son of said cruel master with a deep, dark secret of his own, one dairymaid with a serious crush on the master’s son, and one mysterious peddler who wanders in and out inadvertently stirring up trouble.

2k8: Those characters sound fascinating!

M.P. Barker: Thanks! Turning that material into historical fiction was an adventure and a challenge. I wanted to create characters that readers could identify with, while allowing them to see that those characters aren’t merely modern people wearing funny clothes and living without indoor plumbing. Daniel’s and Ethan’s thoughts and beliefs are very different from ours, yet they grapple with familiar problems: prejudice, abuse, poverty, grief, and loneliness. And they cherish the same things that matter to kids and adults today: loyalty, kindness, trust and most of all, friendship.

2k8: Congratulations, M.P. You are a published author now! And, hey, don't forget you're featured on our blog this entire week. So, make sure you time-travel your little self back here for Tuesday's interview.