Eleanor Crown Jewel of Aquitaine

Kristiana Gregory says about writing Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, France, 1136: "It was a lot of fun imagining a fourteen-year-old girl living during the Middle Ages. I love teenagers and I love medieval history. Of course it was a great help traveling to France with a group of American high school students, and then touring the Aquitaine country with them. I'm convinced many of the concerns and interests kids have today are similar to those of eight centuries ago: friendship, parental love, curiosity about their future, yearnings for adventure and, of course, cool clothes." On a subsequent trip to Paris, Ms. Gregory explored the Louvre Museum, in search of what is believed to be the only surviving artifact owned by Eleanor. After some interesting conversations in fractured French and several wrong turns, Ms. Gregory finally found the exhibit: a crystal vase about sixteen inches tall, encrusted with jewels. "It was beautiful," she says. "Most of the gems were each about the size of my thumbnail, in an array of blues and violets, set into silver." It is said that Eleanor was fifteen and newly married to King Louis VII when she gave the vase to him. The Latin inscription on its base states that after she presented it to Louis, he gave it to Abbot Suger, who then donated it to the Abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris. Kristiana Gregory's other Royal Diary is Cleopatra VII, Daughter of the Nile: Egypt, 57 B.C., which was made into a movie for the HBO Family Channel. Her most recent Dear America title is Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849, named Best Book of the Year by Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. Her first book, Jenny of the Tetons, won the Golden Kite Award for Fiction from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives in Boise, Idaho, with her family.Gregory, Kristiana is the author of 'Eleanor Crown Jewel of Aquitaine' with ISBN 9780439164849 and ISBN 0439164842.