News

March 25, 2009

‘Molly Maguires’ novelist to speak

Mary Garrity Slaby wrote work of historical fiction that is set in Pa. during Civil War.

Times Leader staff

ARCHBALD – Molly Roe, author of “Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires,” will be making appearances at several regional venues, including at The Bottega in Clarks Summit on Saturday, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Roe’s novel of historical fiction, set in the Pennsylvania coal fields of the 1860s, is aimed at educating while entertaining a young adult audience, according to a news release from the publisher, Tribute Books.

Molly Roe is the pen name of Mary Garrity Slaby. She is a contributing author to “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School,” as well as a teacher at Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School.

Her book is set during the tensions of the Civil War era, a time when immigrants were pitted against nativists, management against labor and pro-slavery factions against abolitionists. In many northern states, support for the war was weak and when President Lincoln enacted the draft in October 1862, resistance built up in regions where the common people’s interests were in jeopardy.

Riots broke out in several states, including Pennsylvania. Many in the coal region and the farmlands resisted the draft because losing a breadwinner threatened the survival of the family.

Coming of age amid the unrest of the Civil War era, feisty 14-year-old Katie McCafferty infiltrates the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish organization, to rescue a lifelong friend. Under the guise of a male draft resister, Katie volunteers for a dangerous mission in hopes of preventing bloodshed.

Katie risks job, family, and ultimately her life to intervene. A series of tragedies challenge Katie’s strength and ingenuity, and she faces a crisis of conscience. Can she balance her sense of justice with the law?

“Call Me Kate” is suitable for readers from age 11 to adult. Roe’s work has been praised by Bill Strasner, museum director at Eckley Miner’s Village near Freeland; and by Ruth Cummings, museum education at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton.

Slaby, a veteran language arts and reading teacher at Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School, holds a Ph.D. in education from Temple University, and Pennsylvania teaching certification in six areas. She has pursued the hobby of genealogy for the past decade.

Slaby was born in Philadelphia, raised in Schuylkill County and currently lives in Dallas, with her husband, John. They are parents of two grown children, Melissa and John Garrett, cover illustrator of “Call Me Kate.”

She also will be at the Lackawanna Historical Society, Catlin House, 232 Monroe Ave., Scranton, on Sunday, April 5 at 2 p.m.; the Dimmick Memorial Library on Broadway in Jim Thorpe on April 16, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.; Eckley Miner’s Village in Eckley on May 3 at 2 p.m.; and the Tunkhannock Public Library on West Tioga Street in Tunkhannock on July 1 at 7 p.m.

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