Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

When ten-year-old Rebecca goes to live with her spinster aunts, her aunts find her to be more of a handful than they bargained for. But even more surprising than the transition of Rebecca into a well-mannered young lady are the effects that Rebecca has on her aunts' humdrum lives.

Kate Douglas Wiggin, (1856-1923) was an American children's author and educator. She was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878. With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Her best known books are The Birds' Christmas Carol, Polly Oliver's Problem, A Cathedral Courtship, New Chronicles of Rebecca and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm....