novels

While her mother is recovering from an illness, nine-year-old Nancy travels to her mother’s childhood friends who are like family. “Grandpa” and “Grandma” Benson, together with “Aunt Martha” and young “cousins” Sigrid, Elsa, and Helga, welcome Nancy into their Swedish-American heritage of songs, traditions, and name day parties. Enthralled by the notion of name days, Nancy eagerly looks for her name in the Swedish Almanac, but without success. The Benson family—young and old—rally in search of an answer to her dilemma.