The Wishing Pear Author:Elizabeth Coatsworth The little pear tree was planted in the orchard on the day that Lydia was born. Lydia Van Eyck lived in a brick house just outside the gates of New Amsterdam at a time when the fear of an English invasion was everywhere. And so Lydia begins to fear her English friend Betsy wants her pear tree.
Elizabeth Coatsworth is now one of America's beloved children's writers about American history (although she has written several about other countries, including the delightful Japanese tale, The Cat Who Went to Heaven). This is one of her early books, pub. in 1951. It is about the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam and the threat from the English. Besides having a delightful little New Amsterdam girl, it also has the historical character, Peter Stuyvesant.