The Keys to Fanny - Paperback

by Sally Wahl Constain (Author)

I'm thirteen today, and I wish I could turn time all the way back to my twelfth birthday...before things began to change.

A young girl's dream takes her further than she ever imagined in Sally Wahl Constain's epic debut novel, The Keys to Fanny. An insightful glimpse into a time when women were denied even the most basic education, its strong characters will inspire audiences long after the last page is finished.

When her mother dies, thirteen-year-old Fanny is unceremoniously placed in charge of the household until her father remarries. When he does, however, it is to a woman whose scheming results in Fanny's engagement to her cruel step-cousin.

Devastated at the thought of her upcoming marriage, Fanny's Aunt Freda offers her secret passage to America. Fanny now faces the most important choice of her life: flee the only home she's ever known and risk never seeing her family again or marry a boy she despises.

Forbidden to learn how to read and write in her village, a Jewish shtetl near Kiev, Fanny's dream of earning an education seems to lie in escaping to America.

But as she embarks on a journey of a lifetime, Fanny wonders: Will her dream ever really come true?

Author Biography

Sally Wahl Constain, a New York native, graduated with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from State University of New York Cortland before earning her master's degree in bilingual education from the City University of New York Hunter.

Throughout her thirty-four-year employment as a teacher and school librarian, Constain also worked as a staff developer and coordinator for the Writing Project at Columbia University's Teacher's College. She acted as the Horn Book Guide's reviewer of children's books for many years as well.

Since retirement, Constain has enjoyed pursuing her dream of writing, taking classes, performing volunteer work, and traveling.

Constain and her husband, Edward, have been married for over forty years. They have one son and two grandsons.